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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






PRICE, 25 CENTS. 





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OUR- 
STANDARD BEARER. 



Life Sketches and Speeches 



— OE- 



GEN. CLINTON B. FISK. 



-by- 



REV. John 0, Foster, a. m., 

Sec. U. S. Christian Commission, Author, Editor, Etc. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

MISS FRANCES E. WIIvLARD, 

PRES. N. W. C. T. U. 



CHICAGO: 
Woman's Temperance Publication Association, 



1888. 



The story of General Fisk's early life will be read with great 
interest by every friend of Prohibition. With such a man, with 
such a record as its standard bearer in the national campaign, the 
party will have no apologies nor explanations to make. — The 
Herald, Kansas City, Mo., April 26, 1SS8. 



COPYRIGHT, 1888. 
BY THE AUTHOR 

CHICAGO. 



CONTENTS. 



Picture of General Fisk. Frontispiece. page. 

Preface by the Author, ----- 4 

Introduction by Miss Frances E. Willard, - - 5 
Life Sketches: Log-house, Education, Army Life, Zeal for . 

Temperance, Church, Sunday-school, etc., - 7 

At Heck Hall Dedication in 1866, - 22 
Army Stories: Swearing Story — At Chautauqua; At 

Ocean Grove, - 28 

Sketch of His Great Friend, George H. Stuart (cut), - 43 

At Valley Camp, ------ 47 

Reading John Shearer's Letter for Him, - - 52 

Gen. Fisk's " Army Tactics," - 56 

Stories About the Freedmen, - . - 5S 

"How I Bought a Horse at Auction," - 59 

At the Bier of a Great Friend, .... 64 

With the Sunday-school Workers, ... 67 

" Go on with the Fight," ----- 83 

His Temperance Principles, ... - 86 
General Fisk's Speech in the Academy of Music, Brook- 
lyn, New York, February, 1888, ... 87 
His Plea for Women, - - ... jqi 
The Prohibition Party Movement, - - 102 
Facts and Figures from the Field of Conflict, - 104 
The Drink Waste, ... - . io ^ 
Appalling Statistics, ... - - 105 
War and Rum, .._.._ 105 
An Indictment of Rum, - 106 
The Aggregate Wealth of the United States, - - 107 
Progress of The Prohibition Party Movement in Presiden- 
tial Elections, ----- 108 



PREFACE. 

We have never undertaken a more pleasing task, than 
the one now before us. Providence has bestowed talents 
upon those who will use them aright, with a lavish hand. 
General Fisk has received larger and richer endowments 
than the most of his fellow creatures, and so far as we have 
been able to learn, has never perverted a power to a sinis- 
ter purpose. Whatever he has been called to do, his good 
nature, clear judgment, strong body, courageous heart and 
Christian fortitude have been the reserve forces upon 
which he could draw at sight. 

The places he has been called to fill, the honors of cit- 
izen and soldier, the council necessary in great emergencies, 
the ever widening field of his usefulness, have all united to 
make him a marked character in our national historv. He 
has received honors from the great and good, and the heart- 
felt affections of the lowly whom he befriended. 

In the production of this work we have drawn mostly 
from the words of the great man whom we have personally 
known for nearly a quarter of a century. Some of the 
incidents here given are reproduced from army life, and are 
very vivid. We acknowledge the valuable assistance of 

Rev. Lawrence, Richard Whately, Daily Press, New 

York Herald, Christian Advocate, N. Y., Re-Union Call, 
Ocean Grove Record, The Herald, Kansas City, Inter- 
national Sunday School Report and a very voluminous 
private note and scrap book. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Reverend John O. Foster, a graduate of our Theological 
Seminary at Evanston, and for twenty-five years or more my friend 
and brother, asks me for a few pages introductory to this his latesl 
book which I am glad to pen. 

There is no object lesson so instructive and inspiring as the ob 
ject lesson of a lofty life. He who furnishes this to hh contempora- 
ries and to posterity has done them the highest human service. For 
if one boy born in obscurity and poverty has hewn success out of 
these difficult conditions why may not another do the same? If, in 
the storm of temptation, one untaught youth has carried in his stea '- 
fast hand the lily of a blameless life, so may others who are tempted 
in every point as he has been. 

It is an old and eloquent saying that "Biography is History teach- 
ing by example." Happy are we for whom so many gracious and 
gallant examples have been set by heroic men and women in the past. 
But happier still are we if our own lives furnish finger-boirds, point- 
ing onward and upward instead of backward and downwa: d ; if they 
sound a clear, sweet bugle-note, calling the army back of us to 
move fearlessly up the slopes and hold the Fort of Character against 
the world, the devil, and the flesh. 

"Our Standard Bearer" is an "Excelsior" sort of man. He ha^ 
always heard a voice saying unto him, "Arise and shine, and give 
God the glory." 

On that lonesome backwoods farm in Michigan when he was a 
little fellow without one fortunate feature in his outlook, he deter- 
mined to get up and get on. Some j>eople call this ambition, but its 
right name is aspiration. Ambition is a Mephistopheles that points 
downward with furtive, scowling face, but Aspiration is a heavenly 
maid with radiant, loving, indomitable gaze, that lifts her beckoning 
hand toward stars and sun. To help toward utmost evolution what 
God has involuted in hand, head and heart; to react on our environ- 
ment up to the last limit of our power, and always with good will to 
men, this shall doubtless be our grandest way of glorifying God in 
every world to which He sends us. 

How heroic and full of pathos is the picture of young Clinton B. 
Fisk walking a score of miles, not to get some tobacco, to buy a bottle 
of whisky, or a pack of cards, but to induce another boy to tell him 
all that he knew of Latin! If I had heard but this one fact I 
would not fear to draw his horoscope, with true greatness for 



t> INTRODUCTION. 

its periphery. What vigorous physique, clean habits, high purpose, 
and insatiable thirst for knowledge does not this one act presuppose? 
But there must be heart, as well as head and tact no less than pur- 
pose. With these four qualities and a strong, well kept frame, no 
human being can fail of magnificent success on the high plane that 
calls out God's own ineffable "Well done!" This leader whom we 
celebrate has all. His heart early enshrined Christ; his head "how 
much, through voice and pen has worked among his fellow men;'* 
h : s tact has made him universally beloved (for tact is but that sense of 
contact which makes one sympathetic universally); and his unwearied 
purpose has worked right onward ever, "without haste, wi.hout rest." 
It is good to know how brotherly-hearted a man may be and at the 
same time how persistent; good to study the art of persua^on versus 
antagonism; good to perceive how readily' a great leader in church 
and state may ally himself with the cause of woman's right, and 
vet lose no jot of his "following." The General who went through 
our Civil War without uttering an oath; the Christian who can be a 
brother to Protestant and Catholic alike ; the Sunday-school man who 
is welcome at "Grand Army" Posts; the best beloved Friend of the 
colored race; the steadfast Defender of the Indians; the favorite 
Layman of the Methodist church — these are a few among his well 
deserved but unrecorded titles. 

The first time I ever saw General Fisk was on the platform, in 
La Fayette Hall, at the Prohibition Convention of 1884, where his 
magnetic speech was a marked feature, and we all felt liim to be the 
'coming man." -We invited him to Lake Bluff, that Mecca of the 
Prohibition leaders, and his political speech, while it argued strongly 
for our party, was so candid and generous, that the most unreconcila- 
ble Republicans said, "That man can make votes for you; he does n't 
make folks mad." 

We saw his gallant fight in New Jersey, where he stood up to be 
fired at and came unscathed from the great ordeal of a Gubernatorial 
campaign. We shall see him at the front in the fierce fight of '88, 
where he will be indeed "Our Standard Bearer," holding our spotless 
flag aloft and sending our sacred battle cry to the circumference of 
the nation : "For God and Home and Native Land." 

This will he do and more also, because hereunto is he called, and 
"the day of the Lord is near in the valley of Decision." 

FRANCES E. WILLARD, 
Pres. Nafl Woman's Christian Temperance Union. 
Rest Cottage, Evans ton, III., May 5, 1888. 



LIFE SKETCHES. 



General Clinton Bowen Fisk was born December 8, 
1S28, in York, Livingston county, New York. His par- 
ents came from New England, and were related to Rev. 
Wilbur Fisk D.D., one of the strongest Methodist divines 
of his day. 

Benjamin B. Fisk, the General's father, married 
Lydia Aldrich, a New England lady of Lincolnshire 
descent, removed with his family from western New 
York to Lenawee county, Michigan in 1830, and died at 
Clinton, Michigan, in September 1832, leaving his widow 
with six boys, Clinton being the fifth. The widow and 
her boys were soon reduced almost to pinching poverty, 
and at an early age Clinton was sent from home to live with 
Deacon Wright, a worthy old farmer, who agreed to take 
the lad and for his work to give him when twenty-one 
years old a horse, a saddle, a bridle and $200 in money. 
Besides all this the deacon was to let the boy .go to school 
for three rfionths in each year for at least four years. 

It was this last promise that settled the matter with 
young Clinton. He was fairly crazy to go to school. The 
bargain with the deacon was made in the quaint kitchen 
of the old log house, and the diminutive subject of the ar- 
rangement sat on a tub while his mother and the farmer 
discussed his future. He hated to leave his dear old mother, 
but when the promise about the twelve months' schooling 
was made, he ran to her exclaiming, "Oh! my, such achance 
as that! I'll go, mother, I'll go!" The next morning the 
lad was put with his bundle behind the deacon on his horse, 
and as he rode away he looked back to the log hut. His 
mother stood in the doorway waving adieus. Now and 



8 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

then the corner of her apron sought her eye, and the boy 
wondered how his mother could cry when he had such a 
chance to become wealthy and famous at twenty-one. 

Hard work on the deacon's farm occupied the little 
fellow's time pretty much from morn till night. He was 
a great reader of books, and remembering one day that 
his mother had told him of the benefits of a circulating 
library in her New England home, the boy decided to es- 
tablish a similar institution for the neighbors' boys around 
him. 

A SHOE BOX LIBRARY. 

The librarian was just ten years old and the library 
was an old shoe box set up in Deacon Wright's woodshed. 
But it had a wealth of reading matter. The first volume 
was a torn copy of Shakespeare, the only one Clinton had 
ever seen. It was owned by a farmer, who only used it to 
tear out leaves on which to wipe his razor. The lad hoed 
corn two days for that farmer, and the prize was carried 
home in triumph and put in the shoe box library. By sav- 
ing the eggs he found, young Fisk got enough money to 
buy copies of Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," "Paradise 
Lost" and "Robinson Crusoe." These, with the dilapidated 
Shakespeare, were all the books the library afforded, and 
the circulation never got very high. 

At the end of three years the boy had picked up just 
enough learning to make him hunger for more. The de- 
sire of his life at the time was to possess a book from which 
he could learn Latin. He had set his heart on getting a 
copy of "Anthon's Latin Lessons," but had no money to 
buy it nor friends to indulge his wish. One day the lad 
caught a wild coon. By dint of hard work and patience 
Mr. Coon was soon taught many wonderful tricks. Soon 
after the coon's education was completed young Fisk heard 
that Sand's circus was to show in Jackson, twelve miles 



LIFE SKETCHES. 9 

away. He started to walk to that town, not to see the cir- 
cus, but to sell his pet for money to buy the coveted volume. 
The errand was successful. The lad, a little sorry for the 
loss of his coon, but happy at being able to purchase the 
Latin Lessons, fairly ran the twelve miles homeward to the 
bookstore. There was no one in the villa e to teach him 
Latin, but that made no difference. He studied alone by 
the log light in the fireplace at night and in the day took 
to the fields small slips of paper on which he had copied 
his next lesson. The slips served a twofold purpose: they 
could easily be held on thejplough handle as the horses 
jogged along, and they did not attract the attention of the 
watchful farmer, who would have soon put an end to that 
kind of schooling. 

YOUNG FISK'S FIRST FIGHT. 

When about eleven years old, young Fisk got into 
his first and only schoolboy fight. The anti-slavery feel- 
ing was just beginning to spread. One night in 1S40 
a glee club, the first the boy had ever heard, sang the 
famous campaign song at Clinton: — 

"What has caused this great com motion- motion 

The country through? 
It is the ball rolling on for Tippecanoe and Tyler, too. 
With them we'll beat little Van, he is a used up man," etc. 

All the boys were Whigs and had flags mounted on 
nicely turned sticks bearing the legend, "For Tippecanoe 
and Tyler, too." 

Little Fisk had no money to buy a flag so he got some 
white cambric and with axle grease painted on it in b g 
letters "Birney and Morris." For a staff he appropriated 
his mother's broom, cutting off the brush. Hardly had he 
appeared on the street with his flag when the other boys 
made a rush for it. There was a hot fight for ten minutes, 
in wh'ch flags, boys, broomstick and staffs were consider- 



iO OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

ably mixed. At the end the proud ensign of "Birney and 
Morris" floated over the triumphant and panting owner. 
He had routed the other boys. Then his mother missed 
the broom and the conqueror went over the maternal knee 
and was soundly spanked. 

Slates, blackboards and chalk were scarcely known. 
and even paper was a rarity, while candles were too great 
a luxury, save to enlighten the cabin home when friends 
dropped in or the circuit preacher came around. But dry 
beech wood gave a light for the household, an ample, 
smooth hearthstone and a coal for a pencil gave him a 
chance to " cipher," draw and make letters to his heart's 
content. If the problems were wrong, they were quickly 
rubbed out and tried over again. Thus, with roasting 
head and cold feet, he worked for long hours, making 
rapid progress, and during the " three months of school- 
ing in winter," under the agreement, he laid the foun- 
dation of his useful life and future greatness. 

WRESTLING WITH LATIN. 

In the unaided struggle with Latin verbs and nouns 
the little student got along nicely until he came to the 
diphthong. He could not make up his mind how the end- 
ing of the genitive case was pronounced. There was 
nothing in the book to tell him, and he was in despair. 
By chance he heard that another boy who studied 
Latin was to be at a camp meeting. It meant a twenty- 
mile walk to see this boy, but there was an opportunity 
to learn all about the diphthong, and the active searcher 
or knowledge did not hesitate. He cheerfully walked 
the distance, and it is a fond recollection of his to-day 
that he pumped that boy dry without giving him an ink- 
ling of his own ignorance. 

About this time, at the age of twelve, the lad was 



LIFE SKETCHES. II 

converted and joined the Methodist church, in which he 
has grown up. Very few men had the honor of doing 
so much for it or have done it with so much pleasure as 
he. His conversion and his constant study and reading 
soon worked a change in the boy's mind. A horse, a sad- 
dle, a bridle and $200 at the end of nine years of toil did 
not seem so wonderful then as it had when he left home 
three years before. He determined to see the outer 
world. After a little he convinced the deacon that it was 
wrong to keep him from improving his youth by study 
and travel, and finally secured his freedom. 

About the first thing the released boy did was to turn 
bookkeeper for a laundress. His salary was but a few cents 
a week and board. Besides this he carried collars and cuffs 
for clerks, who paid with copies of the old Knickerbocker 
Magazine and the Philadelphia Courier. In the latter at 
the time the " Pickwick Papers " were running as a serial. 
Little as was the ambitious boy able to earn, by doing other 
odd chores, it supported him while he attended the district 
school, to which he was obliged to walk three miles morn- 
ing and night, winter and summer. 

Deacon William Smith married widow Fisk, and 
Clinton went with them to Spring Arbor, Jackson county, 
Michigan, when he was about fifteen years of age, and 
now he was furnished some educational advantages. 

The hearthstone where he learned to mark out 
" Townsend and Smith," in strong back- hand charac- 
ters, and other merchant firms of real or poetic fancy, was 
now exchanged for some more modern appliances. 

AT SCHOOL AT LAST. 

It was a proud day for the boy when he entered that 
school. His study at the fire and while following the 
plough bore good fruit. He took his place at the head of 



12 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

an advanced class at once, and kept it, too, against boys 
sixteen and eighteen years of age. Well as he stood in 
his classes, the lad led the whole school in declamation. 
He could soon recite with wonderful power for one of his 
years every piece in "The American Preceptor and the 
Columbian Orator," the only book of the kind in town. 
He has them yet among his treasures at home. In time 
young Fisk finished at the district school at the head of 
his class. Then came a misfortune that changed the 
whole course of his life. It was his great ambition to be 
graduated from the Albion Seminary of Michigan. He 
entered ahead of all fellow competitors in Latin and 
Greek, which with him alone was entirely self-taught. In 
preparing for examina ion the poor boy was obliged to 
work all day and study at night. The strain was too 
much, his eyes gave out and he was forced to stop por- 
ing over books. To leave college (the dream of his life) 
was a terrible blow, but the young man's talents soon 
found occupation in business. He advanced rapidly in 
the store where he began as a clerk, and at twenty-one 
married and settled down at Cold Water, Michigan. The 
very name of the town was attractive to Mr. Fisk, for he 
was an out and out hater of rum, and often made ringing 
speeches against the traffic. 

There was another thing young Fisk detested, and 
that was slavery. Five years before — in 1844-45 — tne 
home of the family, which had been moved to Spring 
Harbor, was a regular depot of the under-ground railroad. 
Many a time Clinton, then sixteen years old, made his 
trip of twenty miles in a wagon and drove a slave mother 
and her babies, covered with blankets, to the next station 
near Detroit, Canada, and freedom. 

His physical being came from the highest type of 
New England ancestry. His earliest American progeni- 



LIFB SKETCHES. 1 3 

tor emigrated hither from the Dano-Saxon county of Lin- 
coln, on the east coast of England, somewhere about the 
year i^oo. Bacon's Genesis of the New England 
Churches conclusively shows that in that section was 
born the mightiest movements of modern civilization. 
Linconshire is not only the remote parent of the American 
Republic, but of the great Methodistic revival, which is 
its strongest conservative force. True to the patriotic and 
military instincts of his forefathers, the great-grandfather 
of Clinton B. Fisk entered the Revolutionary army under 
General Washington, served with great efficiency, and 
rose to the rank of Major- General. His descendants have 
distinguished themselves in other fields of warfare than 
that of the sword. 

Benjamin B. Fisk, the father of Clinton, was a manu- 
facturer and contractor by occupation, he was an intimate 
friend of Governor De Witt Clinton, whom he assisted in 
building the Erie Canal, and whose patronymic he be- 
stowed upon his fifth child to serve as a given designation. 

In the struggles and hardship necessary to life in 
primitive surroundings, Clinton B. grew up to a sturdy 
and resolute manhood. His parents were of Baptist ante- 
cedents, but the training of their children, through the pres- 
ence and labors of itinerant preachers, was Methodistic. 
At the early age of nine years he was converted to God, 
and duly received into the membership of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. Educated in the common schools of 
the neighborhood until he had reached his sixteenth year, 
he then repaired to Albion Wesleyan Seminary, and there 
prepared to enter the Sophomore Class of Michigan Uni- 
versity. Greek and Latin were studied while engaged in ag- 
ricultural labors, with such diligence as to threaten the total 
loss of eyesight. Health failed, and a collegiate career 
was, perforce, abandoned. As we have said, commercial 



14 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

pursuits next enlisted his energies. Entering into the 
employment of L. D. Crippin & Co., proprietors of a 
country store, mill and bank at Coldwater, Mich., he mar- 
ried Jeannette A., only daughter of the senior partner, on 
the 20th of February, 1850, and was also admitted to the 
firm. 

Crippin & Fisk continued in associate relations until 
1858, when the firm was dissolved, and the latter removed 
to St. Louis. There he established a successful insurance 
and banking business, and was numbered with the rising 
men of the city at the outbreak of the war for the preser- 
vation of the National Union. No series of biographies 
furnishes more impressive illustrations of biological facts 
than that of the old New England families. Habits of 
thought, feeling, and action, organized in the constitution 
of consecutive generations, and apparently dormant in the 
piping times of peace, became vigorously active amid the 
rude clarions of war. The echoes of the guns that fired 
upon Fort Sumter the 13th of April, 1861, awoke at once 
the hereditary instinct, and on the day following, Clinton 
B. Fisk was among the first of Missouri's loyal citizens to 
enlist as a private in a three months' regiment for services 
to the United States of America. In January, 1862, he 
was conspicuous among those who led the revolution that 
created the Union Merchants' Exchange in opposition to 
the disloyal Chamber of Commerce. His activity as one 
of the executive officers of the new association pointed 
him out as a fitting commander of the " Merchants' Regi- 
ment," better known, perhaps, as the Thirty-third Regi- 
ment of Missouri Volunteer Infantry. A humorous story 
is told of the compact between himself and the soldiers, 
according to which he was to do all the profane swearing 
for the regiment. (This story appears in full farther 
on.) 



l6 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

Having raised a brigade of troops, Colonel Fisk re- 
ceived the Commission of Brigadier in November, I862. 
Subsequently he commanded a division in the Army of 
the Tennessee at the memorable siege of Vicksburg. 
Thence he was sent to take command of the military dis- 
tricts of Missouri and North Missouri. In that capacity 
he defeated Gen. Price's attempt to capture Jefferson 
City, the capital of the State. Resigning his commission 
at the close of the Civil war, he found that Mr. Lincoln 
was unwilling to dispense with his services. Requesting 
General Fisk's presence at Washington, the martyr 
President assigned him to duty in Kentucky and Tennes- 
see. He was Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau 
for all the Central South. The conjoint office of Mili- 
tary Commander and Commissioner for Freedmen sought 
the man, and in the exercise of its functions the incumbent 
did the noblest work of his life. It was pre-eminently a 
work of pacification and reconstruction. His administra- 
tion as Assistant Commissioner was eminently successful, 
and though radical in convictions, yet his heart overflowed 
with kindness to all men, and could do no injustice to any 
one. If severe, his severity was tempered by love. He 
enjoyed the confidence, esteem and good will of the peo- 
ple under his command, which at that time was large 
enough for an empire. He was in reality the military 
governor of Kentucky, Tennessee, Eastern Arkansas, 
and the northern portion of the Gulf States. Under his 
administration social order was restored, industry resumed 
its avocations, goodly fellowship was established, and civil 
law regained supremacy. Peaceably if possible, but if not, 
forcibly, these ends were assiduously sought. Peaceably 
they were accomplished. Church, school house, and ju- 
dicial court supplanted the camp and the battle field. All 
parties were eminently satisfied with the progress of 



LIFE SKETCHES. 17 

events. People whose wealth was estimated at a hundred 
million dollars, and who had been largely identified with 
the Rebellion, petitioned President Johnson to detain 
General Fisk at his post of duty until the beneficent task 
of reconstruction was completely done. Since then he 
has deservedly been one of the most popular and trusted 
of all men in the regions, and with all the classes, that he 
served so well. The M. E. Church South, in particular, 
justly regards him with friendliest feeling. 

He was commissioned as Major-General by the State 
of Missouri in 1864. In March, 1865, he received a com- 
mission as Brevet Major-General in the army of the Uni- 
ted States. Resigning all soldierly offices in September, 
1866, he again returned to St. Louis, and embarked in 
business to retrieve the temporal fortunes previously sacri- 
ficed on the altar of his country's unity. Accepting a po- 
sition as one of the State railroad commissioners, he fur- 
ther became identified with the Missouri Pacific and 
Atlantic & Pacific lines. To these he held the relation of 
vice-president and treasurer from -1867 to 1876. 

With the educational development of the South, and 
also of many portions of the North, General Fisk has 
been, and is, most efficiently connected. During his la- 
bors in the South he instituted the Fisk School for Colored 
People. This has since expanded, under the auspices of 
the American Missionary Association, into the Fisk Uni- 
versity at Nashville, Tennessee. It is fairly entitled to 
the honor of being the first, and perhaps the best, learned 
institution hitherto founded for the benefit of the Africo- 
American race. Undoubtedly it is one of the most suc- 
cessful. Its celebrated Jubilee Singers have made it fa- 
miliar to immense multitudes in two hemispheres. Many 
of the best colored teachers, preachers and missionaries 
have graduated from its halls. Hundreds of students are 



l8 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

now in attendance. Well equipped colleges of liberal arts. 
science, theology and law justify its claim to the title of 
University. Jubilee Hall and Livingstone Hall are two 
of the finest educational edifices in the entire South. 

Rarely does it fall to the lot of any citizen to enter so 
thoroughly into the great philanthropic undertakings of 
the age. Appointed by President Grant to the Board of 
Indian Commissioners in 1874, he was then elected to its 
presidency, and still holds that office. Working in har- 
mony with the Department of the Interior, the Board has 
been singularly effective in the civilization of the Indian 
tribes. It has secured the organization of Industrial 
Schools at Hampton, Va.; Carlisle, Pa.; Lawrence, Kas. ; 
Chilocco, in the Indian Territory; Genoa, Neb.; and Sa- 
lem, Oregon. About two thousand Indian children are 
trained in these institutions. Local schools are also main- 
tained on the reservations of the aborigines. Along the 
lines indicated by these seminaries lies the way to satisfac- 
tory solution of the vexed Indian problem. Ultimate ab- 
sorption into the American body politic is the most fitting 
disposition of the original possessors of the soil, and cer- 
tainly the most Christian. Trustee of Fisk University, 
Tennessee; of Dickinson College, Pennsylvania; of Pen- 
nington Seminary, New Jersey ; of Albion College, Mich- 
igan; and of Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N. J., 
his personal influence touches society at its tenderest and 
most pervasive points. 

In the M. E. Church General Fisk holds, or has held, 
the several offices of Sunday School superintendent, stew- 
ard, trustee and class leader. License as exhorter or local 
preacher he has persistently declined, and that from the con- 
viction that la}' men — distinctively such — have more power 
for good outside either office. Of the General Conference 
of his church, held quadrennially, he was a lay member 



LIFE SKETCHES. 19 

from Missouri in 1876, and was from New Jersey in 1880, 
1SS4, 18S6 and 1 888, at which he served on various 
important committees. In giving homes to' delegates, he 
worked for nearly a month with untiring industry. In 
that body he officiated as chairman of the committee on 
the state of the church, and also of the committee on the 
Book Concern. For the past twenty years he has been a 
member of the Missionary Board of the M. E. Church, 
and chairman of its committee on missions in Japan and 
Corea. He is also chairman of the eastern section of the 
Book Committee of the M. E. Church, under whose super- 
vision its stupendous publishing work is carried on. 

Averse to practical politics, and declining personal ^ 
participation in their procedures, he yet accepted the Pro- 
hibitionists' nomination for the gubernatorial chair of New 
Jersey in 1886. Pure sense of duty compelled candidacy. 
Twenty thousand voters cast their ballots for his election. 
He failed of the popular choice, as was expected, but was 
rewarded by an increase of 500 per cent on any previous 
vote, and by the strengthening of moral principles in his 
adopted commonwealth. All corrupt proffers of aid, or 
of coalition, were emphatically yet politely refused. 
Giving five months of time, 5,000 miles of travel, 125 
speeches, and money without stint in prosecution of a 
wholly legitimate canvass, he created no political antago- 
nisms, but said more and better things in behalf of the 
Republicans than they could say for themselves. Of their 
great historic party he is one of the founders, and has 
marched with its leaders from the days of Fremont to 
those of Garfield. For ten years he pleaded with its 
guiding minds to take up the burning question of saloon 
control of politics, and to combine with all genuine 
philanthropists in the effort to dethrone King Alcohol. 

Since 1876 General Fisk has been in banking and in- 



20 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

vestment business in New York, and naturally commands 
the confidence and support of a large clientage. Bu'. 
neither pressing financial affairs, nor love of literature, 
nor participation in great reformatory enterprises, is al- 
lowed to deprive him of the luxury of immediate toil for 
the spiritual and temporal welfare of the masses. As 
vice-president of the New York City Church Extension 
and Missionary Society of the M. E. Church, his form 
and voice are familiar, alike in public or private meetings 
held for the promotion of its interests, and in the garrets 
and cellars of the poorest of the poor. As an impromptu 
speaker he is remarkably forceful and felicitous. The 
whole range of British and American poetry is intimately 
known to him, and from its choicest products he plucks at 
will what will most adorn the sentiment on which he 
lays special stress. Still in the zenith of physical and in- 
tellectual power, the cause of total abstinence, of prohibi- 
tion, and above all of that Christianity in earnest from 
which each receives its most fitting support, may expect 
to receive from him, under God, yet more efficient aid in 
the future. 

The poor farmer lad is now the owner of a beautiful 
home at Sea Bright — one of the handsomest places on the 
New Jersey coast. He has not regular business, and finds 
plenty of opportunity to do good work for the cause of 
prohibition, which he is thoroughly convinced is the mount- 
ain that will some day fill the earth. General Fisk is 
not a politician. He has refused public office many times. 
Church and educational labor is much more to his taste, 
and he cares for no party except the cold water party. 
His friends say that he has not the slightest desire to be 
the presidential nominee of the Prohibitionists, but they 
also say that the party will not listen to the suggestion of 
any other name. 



Life sketches. 2i 

In person General Fisk is a tall, well developed man, 
with a merry face, iron gray hair and twinkling eyes. He 
does not look a day over fifty. He is very genial in man- 
ner, in fact, magnetic, and can make a temperance or 
camp-meeting speech that always delights his Methodist 
brethren and sisters. They all say he will poll a rousing 
vote. They like a man with human nature in him. They 
know the General has it, for it is recorded that once when 
asked what were the sweetest words to him, he replied: 
"Wife, mother, and home." 

It is also recorded that out of his first successes the 
General provided a royal home for that dear old mother 
of his near where she lived in poverty in Clinton. 



AT HECK HALL. 



The first time we ever saw General Fisk was at Evan- 
ston, 111., July 4th, 1866, at the ' ' u 

DEDICATION OF HECK HALL 

of the Garrett Biblical Institute. He was called from 
Missouri to make the principal speech of the day, and right 
well did he fill the important hour. 

Being a reporter for a Chicago paper, we here pro- 
duce a copy of our notes of that important gathering. 
Though there were many professors, doctors of divinity, 
judges and men of renown present, yet the Missouri 
General made the speech of the day. 

Mr, President, Chief Women not a few, Christian 
Brethren, Friends a. id Fellow- Citizens : — Older than our 
nationality is American Methodism. Barbara Heck, one 
hundred and one years ago, rocked the ciadle of this Wes- 
leyan child of American birth. We ought to be thankful 
for the centenary year just past, and for this gathering. I 
thought there would be many angel wings hovering over 
us, and it would not be strange if they did rattle down a 
few rain drops from the clouds above us. When I first saw 
General Fallows, who has just spoken, he came down 
among us a praying man in the army. He learned that 
the secesh devil would not go out by fasting and prayer 
alone. He fought with us, and the country, recognizing 
his services, gave him a star. On his return home again 
he went into his pulpit to preach the Gospel of Christ. I 
feel in my heart to-day a divided duty. I look over my 
country and feel full of the Fourth of July. I long to 
hear this vast audience sing "My country, 'tis of thee, 
sweet land of liberty," etc. And turning to this beautiful 



AT HECK HALL. 23 

structure, I long to hear you sing, "O, for a thousand 
tongues to sing," etc. And turning my eyes to the flag of 
the free, I feel like singing, "God bless our stars forever." 
Ninety-one years ago this day young Liberty was 
born and placed in her iron cradle. On the Fourth of July, 
1776, our American Methodism was in its vigorous child- 
hood. Old and strong enough to crowd itself up to liberty's 
baptismal altar, and respond Amen and Amen, as the patient 
suffering of the Colonies culminated in the immortal dec- 
laration to change their system of government; for the 
support of that declaration with a courageous faith in the 
justice of their cause, and with a firm reliance on the pro- 
tection of Divine Providence, they mutually pledged to 
each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred hon- 
or. We strike glad hands of fellowship as on this bright 
anniversary day, from prairie and forest, from lake and 
river, from city and country, we gather in this Christian, 
patriotic love-feast. All hail freedom — Christianity as de- 
veloped in our own loved Methodism. All hail! With 
joy and devout thanksgiving we welcome the glory and 
brightness of this day. It is beiitting that we rejoice at 
the return of this national Sabbath, and that we remember 
with a becoming spirit of gratitude, the Lord our King, 
who sitting upon the circle of the heavens smiles upon this 
goodly land of ours. 

"Great God, we thank Thee for this home— 

This bounteous birth-land of the free! 
Wnere wanderers from afar may come 

And breathe the air of liberty. 
Still may her flowers untrampled spring, 

Her harvests wave and cities rise; 
And yet till Time shall fold his wing 

Remain earth's loveliest paradise." 

It is truly befitting that the Fourth of July, 1776, 
should be cherished in the heart of every American citizen 



24 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

with a pride and a pleasure worthy of the patriotism which 
won our independence, and preserved our nationality. On 
this day we are wont to make a pilgrimage to the scenes 
of the early days of our Republic; but on this occasion we 
will not make any wearisome voyage over the fields of our 
national history, nor pause to gather laurels of human 
grandeur. We will humbly acknowledge the Providence 
of God, as displayed in the early settlement of America — 
her achievement of nationality — an achievement whose in- 
fluence shall outlive the fame of monarchies, and run 
thrilling down the latest posterity of man — in the sudden 
and magnificent outspread of our country, and her giant 
strides in all that can give greatness and glory to a people. 
It was given to our fathers to rejoice at the birth of the 
nation. It has been given to us to rejoice that it has been 
"born again," and to see it fully redeemed to liberty. 

" Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, 
He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath wtre stored ; 
He hath loosed the fateful lightnings of His terrible swift sword; 
His truth is marching on." 

The storm had long been gathering. It came. Death and 
destruction darkened on its wing. It passed away and our 
land brightened and beautified in its train. The bow of peace 
is smiling on our political horizon. The sun of prosperity 
is shining high in the ascendant, and noble deeds and things 
of loveliness are flourishing on the same soil which yester- 
day was shaken by the thunder of a thousand cannon — 
scathed by the lightning of clashing swords, and swept by 
the crimson tide of war. But yesterday, in response to 
freedom's call, many of you — your sons and brothers — were 
marching out to conflict in vindication of the honor of the 
"old flag," that had been derided, despised, trampled upon, 
and trailed in the dust by traitor hands. The old flag was 
triumphant; from its baptism of blood it has come forth 



At hEck hall. *j> 

with not a star obscured or a stripe erased. ' To-day your 
swords are beaten into plowshares. The years of con- 
fused noise and garments rolled in blood are, we trust, 
ended. We have ample cause, my brethren, for consecrat- 
ing this day to devout gladness. Incentives for gratitude 
crowd on us like the stars on the sea, from nature, Provi- 
dence, and our entire being. Were our National Union 
this day dead, still would we devoutly thank God it had 
lived so long; but as we gather around its life let us offer 
new prayers and vows for its perpetuity. Solemnly, in the 
presence of God and these witnesses do we vow that this 
" Government of the people, for the people, and by the 
people, shall not perish from the earth." 

Let us remember that human constitutions are vital 
only as subordinate to the eternal constitution of God ; and 
could the spirit of our fathers breathe on us from their 
world, it would utter to this Union a monition like that of 
the Latin lyrist to ancient Rome — "While you bear your- 
selves subordinate to the gods you hold empire." May the 
love of Union be strengthened in each heart here to-day. 
May the solemn covenants which bound our fathers bind us, 
and may they bind our children as they now bind us — 
remaining as the unconsumed bush in the midst of the flam- 
ing fire. 

I thought I had a large speech prepared, but I must 
have lost it. I would say to all of these young students, 
preach without notes. They who thus preach have the 
greatest liberty. I find I get very much at sea with notes. 
I would educate my ministers to go forth and preach, not 
read their sermons, or use notes. Some of my brethren / 
may not like this, but the people like it. You have clapped 
your hands at some things that have been said here to-day, 
and at some things that I have said, now we want you to 
clap your hands into your pockets and help pay for this 



26 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

building. I represent here to-day the State of Missouri. 
When the war broke out, down there was a man of wealth 
who owned two hundred slaves. When the conflict began, 
he said to his slaves, "I know what this means; it is for 
your freedom." And assembling them all before him, he 
said : " I give you all your freedom to-day. You can live 
with me or go and buy yourselves farms with my money." 
Many of them went to Kansas, and he went with them 
and helped to get them homes. In all of this he was of 
course opposed by the rebels. But he said, " I will stand 
for God, the rights of man, and my country." And there 
he stood, fearless and strong. They murdered him. But 
before he died he provided for Lewis Institute and Library. 
When his widow learned that I was coming here, she 
took out her plethoric purse and said, "Take this hundred 
dollars to Heck Hall, and if you want more call again. 
And now if I knew you personally, I would come to you 
and ask your help to wipe out this debt. To the ladies I can 
express no better wish than that they be fitting represent- 
atives of their mothers — such as Mrs. Wesley, Mrs. Gar- 
rett, Mrs. Heck, and others who are now singing in glory. 
I -think it was C. H. Fowler who said of this monument: 

"This is a bond of union to the Church, braided with 
three golden strands: one the holy memories of the past, 
another the living activities of the present, the other the 
divine possibilities of the future. One running through 
the graves of the sainted dead binds us to the Church tri- 
umphant, another running into the generous purposes of 
the living, binds us to the throbbing heart of the Church 
militant, the other reaching out into the years to come 
binds us to the pulpit and faith o*f all coming time. Surely, 
they who put even one stone in Heck Hall pronounce a 
benediction upon their own and the stranger's children 
forever." 





(general Clinton S. 3%sl(. 




27 



THE SWEARING STORY. 



Many times has this famous story concerning Gen- 
eral Fisk and his teamster been told, but never without 
intense interest. 

We have a very accurate copy taken by a shorthand 
reporter at the first Christian Commission Reunion, held 
at Chautauqua in August, 1880. 

The wonderful oneness about this Christian Commis- 
sion day — there was a good lady clasped my hand at the 
other meeting and said she was glad to find one Episco- 
palian. I said, " That is all right, I am an Episcopalian, 
although they have a handle to it. I am a Methodist 
Episcopalian." [Laughter.] Well, she said that was as 
good as anything; it was hard to tell what anyone was 
here at Chautauqua. And then I told her the story of 
the country farmer in my State who, a few years ago, 
thought he would carry home to his sweet young wife 
some of the supplementary top dressing so that she might 
adorn her hair more beautifully. [Laughter.] And after 
she had arrayed it all around she says, " Now, John, you 
go off there a little ways and see how it looks, if it looks 
like natural hair?" and John went and took a most admir- 
ing look at Mary Ann, and he says: " Oh, you could 
hardly tell which is switch." [Laughter.] 

And so it is at Chautauqua. We cannot tell which is 
which, which is the Methodist and which is the Baptist, 
which is the Presbyterian and which is the Episcopalian. 
We are all brothers from all over this broad land. It is 
North and South, and it is East and West. It was on the 
closing Sunday evening of January, 1865, that that mem- 
orable anniversary of this Christian Commission was held 

28 



ARMY STORIES. 29 

in the Capitol at Washington, to which reference has just 
been made, and at which our brother Phillips sang that 
wonderful song, " Your Mission." It was held in the 
great Congressional Chamber just after its completion. It 
had been made ready for occupancy but a few days, and 
therefore we helped dedicate it. 

It was a wonderful assemblage of people. The sacred 
day on which we met, the cause for which we convened 
and the remarkable character of the audience were a strik- 
ing scene. Long before nightfall the avenues of Wash- 
ington leading towards the Capitol were crowded with a 
multitude of people intent upon not being among the 
thousands who could not find standing room in the hall an 
hour afterwards. And when, at 7 o'clock, the venerable 
Secretary of State took a chair, the scene was striking and 
impressive beyond description. The President and Vice- 
President of the United States, the members of the Cabi- 
net, the judges of the Supreme Court, and a majority of 
the Senators and Representatives, distinguished men and 
no less distinguished women, representatives of the high st 
social culture of the country, from the chief centres of the 
Republic, adorned and graced the occasion. The galleries 
shone in blue and gold, with the uniform of the officers of 
the army and navy. The soldier with his fatigue suit was 
chinked in all around to fill up; and fringed all about us 
were the bright, happy and shining faces of the freed peo- 
ple. It was a mighty crowd. The busy hand of the 
great destroyer has demonstrated, since that night, fiftetn 
years ago, the instability of all earthly things — of time and 
wealth, of fame and power. For, alas! how many of 
those who made up that mighty throng are now with the 
mighty dead! 

There sat the nation's chief, pale and thoughtful, ab- 
sorbed in that very hour with the intelligence placed in 



30 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

his hand, as he was going up Pennsylvania avenue to the 
Capitol, a telegram announcing that Stephens and Hunter . 
and Campbell were knocking for entry at the picket line 
of the army of the Potomac, wanting to come in to initiate 
measures for peace. No one of that great throng but the 
President and his great War Secretary knew that the 
Confederates were that hour pressing upon us a propo- 
sition for peace, upon the basis of slavery saved, and then 
the Union to be saved. His great heart throbbed now so 
loudly you could hear it beat all over the chamber. Abra- 
ham Lincoln was the great character of the age. He in- 
carnated the idea of the Republic. Napoleon and Caesar 
and Cromwell and Wellington are overshadowed in the 
presence of this great administrator and this great states- 
man. [Applause.] He was not only administrator and 
statesman but he was mediator; he was a philanthropist, a 
leader and ruler in the highest sense of the term. [Ap- 
plause.] He is embalmed in all hearts the world over 
who love liberty, and 

"Our hearts lie buried in the dust 

With him, so true and tender. 
The patriots' stay, the peoples' trust, 

The shield of the defender. 
Let every murmuring heart be still, 

As bowing to God's sovereign will, 
Our best love wc surrender." 

In the chair sat Seward, and near him was Chase, 
the Chief Justice, and near by was Sumner, the great tri- 
umvirate, by whose inspiration, more than that of all other 
men, the old Senate Chamber had resounded with the 
battle cry of freedom. [Applause.] Fessenden, then Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, a man of most chivalrous goodness 
~ a stern and an indignant man against every form of 
wrong doing — sat there; Stanton, whose wisdom and un- 



ARMY STORIES. 3 1 

derstanding was proof against the sophistry which nerves 
against fear, was there; and Wells, who so well adminis- 
tered the navy as to weave laurels around his grand head 
across the nation; Thaddeus Stevens, Pennsylvania's great 
commoner, sat there — he of slight and agile form, and so 
restless we wondered how so great a soul could have been 
crowded into a form so slender; and Henry Wilson, the 
heroic witness against oppression and wrong, was there, 
too; and there were Wade and Chandler, stalwarts in body 
and soul, their lives given as a living sacrifice for the ac- 
complishment of the one great thing — the sweeping of 
slavery from the face of the earth. 

All of these have gone in quick succession to the 
grave, whence the paths of glory lead. Of the living of 
that notable throng I now recall the genial speaker of the 
House, Schuyler Colfax, who, more than any other Amer- 
ican statesman, can testify that injustice is the most insuf- 
ferable, the most intolerable, the hardest of all wrongs to 
bear. [Applause.] John Sherman, whose name is a 
household word in every prosperous house in our country, 
was there, and Washburne, the treasury's watch-dog, came 
to applaud the Christian Commission. Blaine, whose 
voice rolls out music, as though he were a harper upon all 
harps, was there, too; and there, too, sat those two patriots 
of Massachusetts, Dawes and Boutwell. There was 
then in Washington that most gallant and brave and 
deserving soldier, who was on duty recruiting the veteran 
corps. His manly beauty made us proud of our race, and 
he had gathered unfading laurels from Gettysburg and 
other battles of the rebellion, Gen. Winfield Scott Han- 
cock. [Applause.] Near to the platform there sat one 
with open brow and searching eye, and a calm and judi- 
cial mind, one of the most persevering wisdom, one who 
had gathered an enviable fame in the field of conflict, who 



32 OUR STANDARD BEaKKR. 

shared largely in the glory of gathering victory from de- 
feat, at Chickamauga; one who had given all that he had 
to the country, Gen. James A. Garfield, of Ohio. [Loud 
and long-continued applause, and the waving of handker- 
chiefs.] 

General Fisk: Does this all come out of my time? 
[Laughter.] It was in such a presence as that, on the 
grand occasion of our anniversary, when all the good 
things that could be said had been said, when I was placed 
near the end of the programme — as I am to-day — [laugh- 
ter] leaving my brother, George Stuart, and all the other 
grand orators, to gather up every grand instrument, leav- 
ing me nothing but the baggage to bring up in the rear. 
Along towards midnight I was put on the platform to 
weary for a little time this great throng. I saw the Pres- 
ident there, hobnobbing with Mrs. Fisk, who was his 
partner, at one of the desks of the members. The speaker 
preceding me had told us what an easy thing it was to be 
good. I knew he was mistaken about it because I had 
tried it. It is a hard thing to be good under the best of 
circumstances, and I told them so, that it might be easy 
for them who were at home, living on fat contracts, but 
down on the picket-line, half-starving, walking our beat in 
the stormiest night, it was rather a difficult thing some- 
times to be real pious. And then I told them a story about 
a soldier of mine. In the first regiment I put in the field, 
there were about six hundred praying men. It was a 
wonderful regiment. All boys from Methodist families, 
and from Illinois, and Wisconsin and Missouri. They 
had come to me because I had invited such to come to the 
standard. We were recruiting at Benton Barracks at 
their famous fair-ground. We had put up four thousand 
men to meet a call for three hundred thousand more in 
July, 1862, and this pet regiment of mine was the favorite 



ARMY STORIES. 33 

of all the State. We had wonderful meetings on the Sab- 
bath, and some one of the city clergymen would preach to 
us. There would be thirty to forty thousand people in 
attendance, filling the great amphitheatre. And one Sun- 
day Dr. Nelson preached to us, a remarkably good man 
and a strong preacher, with a keen insight into human na- 
ture, and he told us about the evils of camp life, how easy 
it would be for us to fall into bad habits, and as we were 
to march away the next day, he desired to exhort us to 
lead pure, good lives; and he told us the story of a com- 
modore on a war vessel, who made a contract with every 
midshipman that he, the commodore, should do all the 
swearing for the ship, and Dr. Nelson says, " I wonder if 
all these men here to-day would not be willing to enter 
into a contract that Colonel Fisk should do all the swear- 
ing for the Thirty-third, and I have a good mind to take 
a vote," and they all stood on their feet and voted, and it 
was a grand spectacle. They entered into a solemn cove- 
nant that no oath should be made in our regiment unless I 
made it. We marched the next day, and it is true that 
for many months I never heard an oath in that regiment, 
until one evening I was sitting on the banks of the Mis- 
sissippi, looking over the country, and I heard the most 
classic swearing going on over the bluff. Oh, it was ter- 
rific. I walked out on the edge of the bluff and looked 
over there, and what should I see but one of the teamsters, 
a man I did not think ever had a swear thought. He had 
put his six mules on to a wagon that he had been to the 
river with, and in coming back up the river he had run 
against a stump and broken the pole, and eveiything con- 
ceivable and inconceivable, in the Confederacy and out of it, 
he accused of being in the way just then ; from Jefferson 
Davis down to the lowest soldier, he severely condemned. 
I walked back, and by and by there came up, leading the 



34 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

six mules, my old teamster. I saluted him kindly, and I 
said, "John, didn't I hear some one swear dreadfully over 
there a little while ago?" " Oh, yes," he said, " I reckon 
you did." I said, "Who was it?" And he said, « That 
was me, sir." I said, " Don't you remember the covenant 
made up at the Benton Barracks between you and me, 
and all the others of the regiment that I was to do all the 
swearing for the Thirty-third Missouri during the war?" 
" Oh, yes," he said, " I remember that, but you were not 
there to do it, and it had to l?e done then." [Applause and 
laughter.] It passed into the army as a very great joke, 
and up to the fall of Vicksburg we could hear whenever 
a teamster was swearing a little he would be told to hold 
on until General Fisk came along, and he would do it. 

This story seemed to please Mr. Lincoln very much. 
I saw his tall form sway back and forth over the desk as 
he laughed so heartily over it. This was on Sunday night. 
On Monday our good Brother Stuart had us at Philadel- 
phia for an anniversary, I think, and after going back to 
Washington I said, "I will go and bid Mr. Lincoln good- 
bye, before I go back to my command." I went to the 
White House on Tuesday morning and passed into the 
great room where the throng met on those days who 
wanted to see the President, and there sat Foreign Minis- 
ters and Senators and members of Congress and contract- 
ors and Judges, all waiting for an audience. No one could 
get in. Mr. O'Leary, who used to attend the door, and 
get some of you in for ten dollars apiece, came out and 
said that no one could see Mr. Lincoln that morningr. 
Among the disappointed ones I saw a little old man, and I 
had met him there two or three evenings before, trying to 

* 

seek an audience with the President. This old man stag- 
gered away and sat down on the window-sill, the very 
picture of despair. I said, "You seem to be in great sor- 



ARMY STORIES. 35 

row; what is the matter?" and he raised his eyes and said, 
" Oh, I am in such trouble, sir." I said, "What is it?" 
and he said, "Look at that package of papers;" and I 
looked at them and saw they were worn, torn and greasy, 
and had passed through ever so many headquarters, and 
were covered with indorsements; and I found that when 
the war broke out, he lived in East Tennessee; that he had 
two boys, sixteen and eighteen, and that they both went 
into the Federal army. That one at Strawberry Plains 
had been wounded and taken to the hospital, and his 
younger brother detailed to nurse him. The older boy 
died, and the younger one, homesick and lonesome, had 
deserted and gone home to see his mother in East Ten- 
nessee. It was at the time when death was the penalty for 
desertion, and no one could mitigate the sentence except 
the President; but this old man had been to see that great- 
est of soldiers, who never made a mistake or lost a battle, 
General George H. Thomas, the commander of the Army 
of the Cumberland. He had been to him and told his sor- 
rowful story, and General Thoma had written a letter to 
the President, begging him to interfere and save the boy. 
And he said, " It is Tuesday, and my boy is going to be 
shot next Friday. What shall I do?" It was one of those 
sad stories, one of a hundred stories, that had made my heart 
sore, and I went into the President's private secretary's 
room. I knew him very well, and I said, "John, I want to 
see the President." And he said, "You can not see him." 
And I said, "Why?" And he said, "Let me tell you, but 
don't breathe it in Washington. We are going to start for 
Annapolis in twenty minutes. The engine has been or- 
dered. Stevens, Cameron and Hunter are waiting for us 
at Fortress Monroe, and we are going to have peace, no 
more war. I said, "You don't say so!" I said, "Mr. 
Lincoln must not go down there until he has seen this old 



$6 OUR STANpARD BEARER. 

man." I said, " I will write him a letter," and I wrote a 
letter as follows, and he took it in: " My dear President: 
There is an old man out here. He has a sorrowful story, 
and I know you will hear it. Will you hear him a mo- 
ment and oblige me?" and signed in my name. I sent it 
in, and in less time than I can tell it ther j came a message 
from Lincoln to let this old man in, and he turned his back 
on plenipotentiaries and senators and judges and walked 
into the presence of Mr. Lincoln. [Applause.] I said to 
myself, "I will see how this thing comes out," and I pried 
the door open just about an inch. It would have been cu- 
riosity in a woman, but in man it was simply a spirit of 
inquiry, you know. [Laughter.] There stood the great 
President, pale and sad, his great hand spread out on the 
table, and this old man got very close to him before he saw 
him, and he said, " Are you the man that General Fisk 
sent in here?" and he said, " I don't know who sent me — 
someone did;" and the* President said, "Now tell me the 
story very quickly," and he told him the story, and Mr. 
Lincoln took the paper and said, " I will send it to Judge 
Holt, and you come to-night and see what the answer is." 
And then the old man's heart sank within him, and he 
threw himself on the breast of the President, with his 
hand on his shoulder, and said, " My God, Mr. President, 
this must be attended to now; my boy is going to be shot 
next Friday." How well I remember the wonderful look 
of the President — the wonderful look of sadness which 
mellowed away at once into such perfect humor, as he said, 
" That reminds me of General Fisk's swearing story, let 
me tell it to you." And he sat the old man down there 
by the table — [laughter] — and he told him the story in as 
much detail as I have told it to you, making him laugh as 
heartily as possible, taking three times as long to tell the 
storv as it would have required to have read the papers all 



ARMY STORIES. 37 

through, and then he took an old quill pen, that I would 
give a hundred dollars for this minute, and wrote across 
that paper, "Let this boy be pardoned. A. Lincoln.'' 
[Applause.] That is how I came to do all the swearing 
for a whole regiment. I was about to say we are this day, 
and in all these proceedings, unrolling an immortal page 
on which memory has written up this whole story of the 
great struggle for union and liberty. It is well that this 
university of the summer solstice — that is a good name for 
it — [laughter] — should gather from near and far all these 
soldiers and their friends to talk of those old days, and the 
words of welcome that saluted us this morning were but 
the grateful voice of these friends, rising in beneficence to 
heaven for blessings for the country we love, and for which 
so many went down to honored graves in its preservation. 

AT OCEAN GROVE, N. J., 

August 4, 1883, this swearing story was called for again 
and again until the General came, and the interested dele- 
gates felt more at ease. 

The General resided at his beautiful suburban home 
at Sea Bright, N. J., only twenty miles away, and hi? 
proximity led all to expect that he would certainly come. 
That evening the Secretary presided and introduced the 
General. 

"I have driven twenty miles and have some more driv- 
ing to do to-night, and hence I am not going to keep you 
very long. I congratulate you (turning to Dr. Stokes) on 
your overflowing house. I never saw so many people 
anxious. to make a speech. You are a wonderful people 
who will stand so much speech-making. (Dr. Stokes — 
'They are used to it.') Mrs. Fisk said she would like to 
make a speech herself. She might tell you something new. 
[Laughter.] I thought this would bring down the house. 



38 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

I am reminded of some Freehold boys who were making 
speeches. One spoke on potatoes, another on some other 
vegetable. The last boy had a speech on onions. 'Onions,' 
said he, i is a something that makes people sick when they 
don't eat them themselves.' It is a good deal so with these 
orators, [applause] of whom I am one myself [renewed 
applause.] I have enjoyed this meeting very much, 
speeches, etc., all together. Just as I was getting on the 
floor, Mr. Foster said, ' Don't you forget to tell that swear- 
ing story. Bro. Stuart won't sleep to-night if I tell him 
you did not.' " 

Here followed the story as mentioned. 

"It is a beautiful and happy adjustment of things that 
brings this reunion to the city by the sea, and here, where 
the eastern sun begins the early song of the morning; 
where the almighty form glasses itself in the tempest and 
in the calm; in breezes cool, or in the quiet stream; where 
all bear the image of the eternal, the invincible; here, in 
this most attractive spot — where from this rostrum for 
more than a dozen years words of welcome have gone out 
all over this land, for all to come and add to their faith vir- 
tue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temper- 
ance, and to temperance godliness, and to godliness 
brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity, for 
the greatest of them is charity. I am glad the Commis- 
sion came here, because it is so near my home [laughter] 
one of the best homes you ever saw. I am only a simple 
farmer and the rain has ruined all my corn. [Laughter.] 
I know much of the work of the Commission; saw their 
nurses in hospitals, heard their voices of instruction, en- 
treaty, warning admonition break on the ears of the 
soldiers, the solitary sentinel at his post, as well as in the 
line of battle. Oh, those twenty years and more ago — 
when the arch-fiend of ruin was ready to rend the temple 



ARMY STORIES. 39 

of our liberty, when the great Republic with its high hopes 
and record in danger, going down to decay, ready to raise 
the curtain on the fragments of a most glorious Union! It 
hardly seems possible to us that but yesterday the forces 
combined for the success of the country were clenched 
with the enemy, and that we came out gloriously with the 
Union saved, the causes of the war destroyed. Two and 
a half millions of men shouldered the musket on the right 
side of this contest, followed with the prayers of Chris- 
tians in their homes and churches, and out of these prayers 
the Christian Commission was born. 

" Thank God that it ever entered into the heart of 
.George H. Stuart — God bless him — [cheers] to hang the 
banner of the Cross in every camp on the Potomac, on 
the Cumberland, the Mississippi, that through him the 
throbbing heart of the Christian Church strengthened the 
palsied arm of the Union. It is not any wonder his soul 
overleaped the boundaries of the communion of his early 
years in < All hail the power of Jesus' name,' and then also 
in ' There is a fountain filled with blood.' When the old 
deacon put his hand on his shoulder and said, * George, you 
ought not to sing these songs,' he broke out again, ' Re- 
deeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.' 
4 Let those refuse to sing who never knew our God.' 
[Loud and long applause.] I have seen his helpers and 
heard their voices in prayers, in hospitals, as we stood over 
open graves, where that great multitude of known and 
unknown are sleeping 

u On Fame's eternal camping-ground 

Their silent tents are spread, 
While glory guards with solemn round 

The bivouac of the dead. 

"Ne'er shall their glory be forgot 
While Fame her record keeps, 



4° OUR STANDARD BEARER* 

And Honor points the hallowed spot 
Where Valor's glory sleeps. 

" Nor rack nor chains nor brutal might, 

Nor Time's remorseless doom 
Shall dim one raj of holy light 

That gilds their glorious tomb.' 

" For here sleep the men who died that this govern- 
ment of the people and for the people should not perish 
from the earth. May it appeal to you and to me to-night 
in these closing moments of this glorious reunion, so to 
discharge the duties of our great citizenship, that we may 
be instrumental in making the foundations of this govern- 
ment stronger by our faith, our actions and our love for" 
this old Bible. All economies, constitutions, human gov- 
ernments, must be subordinated to the eternal economies 
and constitutions of God. 

"Spain's great orator, in contrasting the monarchy with 
the republic of France, says: 'France built upon the 
criticisms of Voltaire and the Encyclopaedias of his time, 
while America is built upon an antiquated book called the 
Bible.' Could his words rise to a stately panegyric as we 
hang this new Republic in the gallery of the nations! 
With such a government, such a country, such a Bible, 
such a God, with our face towards the stars, let us go on 
doing our whole duty; then this blessed banner — 

" O'er the high and o'er the lowly 
Floats that banner bright and holy 

In the rays of freedom's sun; 
In the nation's heart embedded. 
O'er our Union newly wedded, 

One in all and all in one. 

" May that banner wave forever, 
Let its lustrous stars pale never, 
'Till its stars shall pale on high; 



ARMY STORIES. 4* 

While the right and wrong dividing, 
While there's faith in true hearts guiding, 
Truth and freedom shall not die. 

" As it floated long before us, 
Be it ever floating o'er us — 

O'er our land from shore to shore 
There are millions jet to wave it, 
Millions who would die to save it; 

Wave it, save it evermore I 

" But before that flag is another banner. Its hues are 
all of heaven; it has the red of the sunset; it has white 
and blue — the bright blue of Bethlehem's glorious morn- 
ing; red with the blood of the crucified, striped with the 
finger of God — Love the banner and the Cross. 

"Let us go forward, and by and by, after these reun- 
ions shall cease, we shall strike glad hands of fellowship 
on the bright, pure shore, which may God grant through 
His Son, Jesus Christ, Amen." [Long and tumultuous ap- 
plause.] 

President Stuart came in in time to make a few fare- 
well remarks, saying he had heard from his room the voice 
of General Fisk, and could stand it no longer, but came 
over in the wet to say good-by. 




GEORGE H. STUART, 
Of Philadelphia, Pa., President of the U. S. Christian Commission. 



4» 



GEORGE H. STUART. 



We give a brief sketch of this great man, for whomGen- 
eral Fisk has such a profound respect. George H. Stuart 
was nominated by General Fisk for President of the U. S. 
Christian Commission, saying, " as long as he may live." 
t 4 This Christian chieftain," with his five thousand assist- 
ants, raised and distributed six millions of dollars in moneys 
and supplies for the relief of the suffering soldiers during 
the late war. 

George Hay Stuart was born at Rosehall, County 
Down, Ireland, April 2, 18 16. 

He was named for the Rev. George Hay, pastor of 
the Associated Presbyterian Church, of which his parents 
were honored members. George H. Stuart emigrated to 
America, to which several of his family preceded him, 
arriving in Philadelphia, Sept. 1, 1831. 

He became a regular attendant at the First Reformed 
Presbyterian Church, and made a profession of religion 
April 24, 1835. I n [ ^4 2 ne was or dained a ruling elder, 
and has always been a most earnest, active member. To 
his munificent contributions, as well as to his untiring 
personal labors, much of the prosperity of this church has 
been owing. The handsome and commodious edifice 
occupied by the congregation, which has historic fame as 
the place of meeting of the Presbyterian National Con- 
vention in 1867, was erected principally by his exertions, 
and received his generous aid. 

He was always a staunch friend of the Foreign 
Missionary cause. The Missionary Refuge at Landour, 
Northern India, was his gift to the Saharunpar Mission, to 

43 



44 °UR STANDARD BEARER. 

all of whose operations he made large donations. Mr. 
Stuart was early interested in the Sabbath- School work, 
and after acting as teacher for a few years, he was elected 
Superintendent, and filled the position for about twenty-five 
years with the greatest success. Mr. Stuart's efforts to do 
good were not confined to any one denomination. Wher- 
ever good was to be done, he was ready to give his aid. 

The delegation of the Irish Presbyterian Church, sent 
to this country during the years of famine in that land? 
owed to his counsel, co-operation and contributions, much 
of its success. 

The Presbyterian National Convention, held in Phil- 
adelphia, November, 1S67, which did so much to effect the 
reunion of the Old and New School Churches, was sug- 
gested by him, and he was called by acclamation to act as 
its President. He has been connected with the Young 
Men's Christian Associations since their organization, and 
was President of the National Conventions held at Troy, 
in 1859, an d Chicago in 1863. 

He has been for many years an officer of the American 
Sunday-School Union, and of the American Bible and 
American Tract Societies, in each of whose operations he 
has taken an active part. 

Mr. Stuart has been called on to discharge important 
public trusts. He was repeatedly urged by President 
Grant to occupy a place in his Cabinet, which he declined 
on account of his precarious health. He has acted as one 
of the Indian Commissioners, whose labors have done so 
much to protect our aborigines from wrong. 

He is also a member of- the Board of Public Trusts of 
Philadelphia, to which the charge of the humane and 
benevolent institutions under the care of the city has been 
committed. 

As a merchant, Mr. Stuart has occupied the foremost 



GEORGE H. STUART. 45 

rank, not only in regard to enterprise and sagacity, but 
also for an integrity which has never been tarnished by a 
dishonest or dishonorable action. 

Mr. Stuart's natural talents are of a high order, and 
would have rendered him a distinguished man in any 
position, whether military, political or ecclesiastical. Like 
the good king of Judah, whatever he does " he does with 
all his heart and prospers." 

Mr. Stuart's greatest eminence is as an earnest, gener- 
ous and laborious laborer for Christ. He is emphatically a 
man of prayer. Few persons, it is believed, are as atten- 
tive to the private duties of religion, and none can excel 
him in conducting public services. 

Mr. Stuart possesses great natural eloquence. His 
style is earnest, direct and luminous. None can command 
better the attention of an audience. Mr. Stuart's natural 
constitution was robust, and his habits of strict temperance 
kept it unimpaired for many years, although his labors 
have been so abundant. He has, however, for several 
years been a sufferer from spasmodic asthma, which has 
frequently prevented him for weeks at a time from resting 
in bed. Even in the most severe paroxysms of pain he 
has been enabled to endure all without a murmur. 

In person, Mr. Stuart is a man who would attract 
attention from the benignant expression of his countenance, 
along with its intelligence and animation. He is nearly 
six feet in height. 

Mr. Stuart married Miss Martha K. Denison of Phil- 
adelphia, May ii, 1S37. They had nine children, four of 
whom have been called to the other world, one in early 
manhood. While Mr. Stuart has always done much in 
public he is remarkable for doing more in private. He is 
frequently at the bedside of the sick and dying, and avails 
himself of every opportunity in the car, the hotel, the 



46 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

counting-room, the work-shop, the crowded street, or the 
lonely dwelling, to give words of counsel and comfort, 
and to lead the sinner to the Savior. To him " to live is 
Christ." 

Bishop Simpson in his farewell remarks to the Chris- 
tian Commission, said: "Early in the history of this 
Commission, when our work had not been fully developed, 
I remember to have spoken of our great leader — our worthy 
President, Mr. Stuart, as our Major-General. But, sir, 
his works merit promotion, and I nominate him now as 
Lieutenant-General of the Christian Commission! He 
shall never wear the stars on his shoulders; but above and 
beyond yon clouds which hide the Invisible from view, 
there are crowns, and there are stars which shall shine in 
his crown of rejoicing forever!" 

This sketch of Mr. Stuart is condensed from Dr. 
Wylie's contributions to Chaplain Billingsby's "From the 
Flag to the Cross." 



AT VALLEY CAMP. 



At the Reunion, August I, 1886, of the Christian 
Commission, Sanitary Commission, Army Chaplains, and 
the Good Samaritans of the late war, at Valley Camp, 
near Pittsburgh, Pa., Gen. Fisk was present and rendered, 
as usual, invaluable services. He was frequently called out 
for a speech; a few sketches will be all that we can give: 

"Mr. President, and Friends of the Christian 
Commission : — I should have preferred to have had the 
music go on till ten o'clock. We are told the world itself 
is a musical instrument not yet fully strung. When by 
and by every note shall be right; when the nations of the 
earth shall flow together; when the harmony of common 
good shall prevail; when shall come again to all people 
that age of glory when we will not be of a party, but all 
for Christ; when nothing shall tempt brave men or frail 
women; when one story every child shall lisp; when there 
shall be one Name above every name — then the world will 
be one vast academy of music. 

" Mr. President, for more than a score of years we 
have been studying that page of long ago. We have now 
been welcomed to the shades of this park and strike glad 
hands of fellowship. We have to close up our rapidly 
thinning ranks. Soon some one will stand on this plat- 
form and tell that the last Union soldier is dead ; the last 
chaplain gone; the last bivouac sounded. All will have 
pitched their tents in the great camping ground. He will 
tell the multitude that three hundred thousand of those 
men are sleeping in the cemeteries of our land — one hun- 
dred and seventy thousand whose names are known and 

^7 



48 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

recorded; one hundred and thirty thousand that bear the 
name of 'dead Union soldiers.' Marked 'Unknown.' 
We know not what families were saddened when these 
men laid down their lives. So it is well that we come any 
distance to recount these things and grasp the hand of 
George H. Stuart, who gave head and hand to the Gov- 
ernment and who has received the gratitude of a whole 
nation. 

"A quarter of a century ago there was a whirlwind 
around the Temple of Liberty, and danger that the Re- 
public would go down, and the sun set on a land rent 
with civil feuds. After this, the discomfited minority 
appealed to arms against the majority. The ghost of 
John Brown had rung the alarm bell and the people had 
to respond. T*.ey of the South were just as conscientious 
as we of the North, but they had not counted on the kind 
of men the North sent out — men who came from the 
press and the pulpit; descendants of Jonas Parker, who, 
when the shot was fired, reddened Lexington with their 
blood. From the time when Moses reached his arm 
across the ages and rocked the cradle of Liberty; from 
the preaching of Paul; by all the heroism of the May- 
flower — aye, from all the centuries of the past they came 
to cheer on the sacrifice of the past, and their children rise 
up and call them blessed. 

" Following in the wake of this army, our whole land 

was organized to carry on the work of helping the 

soldiers. I thank God for George H. Stuart, who all 

along was the leader in the glorious cause. No wonder 

his soul burst into singing « Rock of Ages.' He ought to 

have answered his church by singing — 

" 'Let those refuse to sing 
Who JKVer knew our Lord.' 

" All along the line were our Christian Commission 



AT VALLEY CAMP. 49 

men. That was no place for religious ' dead beats.' We 
had a few, who in time of any trouble in the air, if it 
looked smoky, were sure to have an attack of colic and 
go to the rear. 

" I remember about a soldier who had his arm shot 
'off and one of our men went to him and said, 'John, do 
you love Jesus?' He answered, 'This is no time to ask 
conumdrums. You take your handkerchief and tie up my 
arm and then talk to me about my soul.' One of these 
men came and wanted to preach to my division. I told 
him that I had a large number of men, but he insisted 
he had a large voice. I gave him permission, but he 
became so badly stage-struck that the boys said, ' Don't 
bring us any more of those "hundred-day men.'" 

" I remember the noble women I met in the army ; 
Mother Bickerdyke — may she live forever! — and Mrs. 
Holt, of Chicago, whom I saw kneeling in the deep mud, 
taking care of our men. How the boys worshiped them ! 

" Scores of our boys were constant students of the 
Bible. The majority of the men came out of the army 
better than they went in, and all owing to the Christian 
Commission. The good accomplished by their letter 
writing can't be computed. Mrs. Fisk could show you a 
literal bushel-basket filled with letters from mothers, wives 
and daughters of soldiers' families to whom she had 
written. 

" I feel something of embarrassment in this position, 
after all, — somewhat like the man who lost one good wife 
and then got another. A kind friend came to congratulate 
him, and blundered, and finally wished him many happy 
returns of the day. I don't know about the points of 
'falling out.' [Laughter,] 

" Twenty-five years ago a nation split asunder, and a 
nation clutched in a bloo ly grapple. Nowhere do we 



«»nu STANIiAltlt 1,1 \ i; |. i> . 

read oi such a sti uggle, and such a reunion after the war. 
Few if any have in.- 1 <• knowledge *»i the South than I, 
.Hid I can endorse all Colonel McFerrin has said about the 
Loyaltj »'i the South, Chen wert words of fraternal 
reeting in Governoi Foraker's speech ju^t before fefl 
I >.ivis went across the country making some strange uttei 
ances. Twain \ and more years ago, when engaged in 
the work oi reconstruction, none helped more than Colonel 
McF( 1 1 in mi. i. 

"A man i. .|,| me once, 4 You an taking too much 
stock in that Mi I > rrin and Green. 1 1 once asked a man 
something about anothei on< , and he answered me in this 
ways 'On., there was an old man who had a tanyard, 
lie had "in- mule who t..i twenty years had done nothing 
but ^iiiul bark, The man at h ngth got a ma< bine, and gave 
the mule a handsome pasture, and what do you suppose he 
did? Why, he went into the middle oi it, and pit ked out 
hi ..Li stump, and walked round and round tti.it stump, 
picking up what he could as he went, leaving the rich 
I ..I-. i in e mil. mi. bed'. 1 

" Let us do something worthy of this grand Nation. 
It is a grand thing to be married undei this ill-, i a-.u-.l 
a Southern famih once if they had m> Southern flag, and 
they brought one out. I 'h( \ kept it tucked away as a 
i, minder of the sorrowful days that were past, There is 
but one flag now foi us all. 

M Listening to the incidents narrated here, one came 
to me of an old ladj W ho had only one boy. He came to 
,,,, m.l -,ii,l his in, alu i WOUld not he satisfied till he hail 

brought me these letters, They were from his Presiding 
i i,i, i.' He hail his Sabbath at bool hymnal with him, I 
kept my eye on him, and soon found he ha. I courage to 
kneel in a tent and praj before ungodly comrades, in 
pne of our fights I hoard Harry was wounded, The 



AT VALLEY CAMP. 51 

surgeon thought he could not live. We felt he must be 
taken back to Helena, but he could not. When told of it, 
he said, 'All right, I am not afraid, but I want to see my 
mother.' 

" We made up a purse and sent for his mother. She 
came at once, and finding her boy, said : c Harry, if God 
wants you, it is all right.' Next to Harry's cot was a 
wounded Confederate, and she nursed them both. She 
said, 'He is somebody' s son, and his mother is not here.' 

"As the last hour came to Harry, his face was radiant, 
and he tried to sing, but could not. When asked how he 
felt, he answered, c Oh, I feel I am going to the front? 

" Oh, friends, can we ever forget these scenes!" 



READING JOHN SHEARER'S LET- 
TER FOR HIM. 



After one of the fruitless efforts of his command to 
" climb up some other way " into Vicksburg, Gen. Fisk 
relates this incident, which occurred about Feb. i, 1863: 

" We had been removed for a month from our lines 
of communication and had received no letters from home. 
Of course, when the way was re-opened, our first thought 
was of the mail. I went to the post-office tent and re- 
ceived my precious budget from home — from wife and 
children, pastor and Sunday-school children — for I had 
been reduced from the rank of Superintendent of the Sun- 
day-school to become a General in the Army. I sat down 
on a log by my tent to peruse the messages of love. I 
had read them through and through, and was about to 
rise, when an old soldier, seated near me on the same log, 
accosted me with — 

" ' Old fellow, I want you to read my letter.' 

"I had nothing on to indicate my rank. I turned and 
looked at the man, and then reached for the letter. It was 
directed to 'John Shearer, Helena, Arkansas.' The ad- 
dress began at the top of the envelope and ran diagonally 
across to the lower corner. 

" * Can't you read it yourself, John?' 

" < No.' 

" * Then I will, of course; but why don't you know 
how to read?' 

" I learned that he had been born in a slave State, 
though he was an Iowa soldier. The letter was from 

53 



JOHN SHEARER'S LETTER. 53 

John's wife. After speaking of gathering in of the crops, 
and entering into all the little affairs of home — mentioning 
even Susey's new dress, the new boots for Johnny, and 
the cunningest wee bits of socks for the baby — the wife 
began to read John a sermon on this wise: 

"'John, it was quarterly meeting last Saturday, and 
the Presiding Elder stopped at our house. He told me 
that a great many men who went into the army Christians, 
came back very wicked: that they learned to swear and 
gamble and drink. Now, John, I want you to remember 
the promise you made, as you w ere leaving me and the 
children, that you would be a good man.' 

" And the soldier wept as he listened, and when we 
came to the dear name that closed the precious letter, he 
raised the sleeve of his old coat, brushed away the great 
swelling tears, and said with a full heart, <• Bully for her? 
It was the soldier's Amen, eloquent and expressive. 

" 4 Well, have you been a good man, John?' 

" Then came the sad story of drunkenness and gam- 
bling and profanity, into which John had been led, and 
the humble confession that he had forgotten his vow, but 
would renew it, and, with God's help, would try and keep it. 

U I then discovered my rank to him, which disconcerted 
him at first, but he soon got over it. I invited him to my 
tent, and he came to all our meetings afterwards. 

"Weeks parsed by, and the horrors of the grave-dig- 
ging on the Mississippi, where thousands of brave men 
were laid low in the swamps, passed over us, sweeping 
away six hundred of my own men. Low with the £ever, 
one day, I found John Shearer. I received his words of 
faith in the home beyond, his last message to his wife and 
children, and then sang by his side the sweet hymn, be- 
ginning,— 



54 °UR STANDARD BEARER. 

Jesus can make a dying bed 

Feel soft as downy pillows are; 
While on His breast I lean my head, 

And breathe my life out sweetly there. 

The soldier's eyes were soon closed in death. 

" That scene has come back to my memory to-day. 
The incidents were so many and so interesting as they oc- 
curred ; now they are historic, and we must be careful to 
tell the children what we mean by this service. Tell them 
how our country was saved by their fathers; how the peo- 
ple gave their money by the thousands and the tens of 
thousands to help the soldiers. Let us always have these 
Reunions, even if there are but three of us left to attend. 

"Now I am called away, and I. dislike to say c fare- 
well,' but I trust we will meet in that better Reunion 
in the sky. May God bring us there, to go no more out 
forever !" 

Mr. Stuart said: "In behalf of the Christian Com- 
mission of the United States, I bid you farewell, and wish 
you God-speed, and / hope you will live until I can vote 
for you for President." 

This farewell took place July 31, 18S6, and is mem- 
orable for the feeling then among his brethren. 




55 



GEN. FISK'S ARMY "TACTICS." 



In his address at the Anniversary of the American 
Bible Society in May, 1866, Gen. Fisk related the follow- 
ing incident which happened in the department near Mini- 
ken's Bend, on the Mississippi, in 1S63: 

"More than 25,000 Bibles and Testaments have been 
given to soldiers and sailors from my own headquarters. I 
believed in putting them beside the Tactics and Army Reg- 
ulations. Let me tell you a little incident connected with 
the distribution. 

"There was a brave soldier from Iowa, Col. Samuel 
Rice, a name now honored in the army by the death of that 
Christian soldier, who died at Spottsylvania. Col. Rice 
commanded a brigade of my division in the Army of the 
Mississippi. In the summer of 1863 the War Department 
at Washington advised us that a new edition of Army 
Tactics, prepared by Gen. Casey, would soon be issued. 
We were eager to receive the book, and inquiries at head- 
quarters were frequently made after the new Tactics. 

"One morning I received a package of a thousand 
New Testaments printed by the American Bible Society. 
They were put up at my headquarters, in a nice little case, 
showing the backs of the titles in gilt letters. Soon after- 
wards Col. Rice came in, and seeing books in the case 
• said : 

" £ So the Tactics have come ; I am glad of it.' 
" 4 Yes, Colonel,' said I, l the Tactics have come.' 
" ' Can I make my requisition for them this morning?' 
"I replied affirmatively. - 

56 



GENERAL FISk's ARMY TACTICS. 5^ 

" * General,' said he, i have you read these Tactics?' 

" 'Yes, sir, I have; I have studied them, and I mean to 
study them morning and evening while I live.' 

" He made the requisition for ' forty-two Casey's Tac- 
tics,' through his Adjutant- General. 

"When it was presented, I tied up a package of forty- 
two New Testaments and sent them out to his headquarters. 
His officers gathered round to get the new book. As they 
opened the package out came the New Testaments. 

"Of course there was a momentary disappointment in 
the group, but it was the human means of leading more 
than one of them to a saving knowledge of these Tactics. 

"Col. Rice, for a long time had been seriously inclined. 
He had been at our meetings and had talked to me on the 
great subject. He began reading the Bible from that very 
day, earnestly and prayerfully. A few months afterwards, 
while leading his courageous boys against the bayonets of 
General Price, he received a serious wound. I visited him 
as he passed up the Mississippi river to his home to die, 
and found him rejoicing in hope, clinging to the ' sure 
word of prophecy' contained in the blessed Book, and 
looking forward to the time when he should join the great 
army above. I sat down with him and sang, 
Jesus can make a dying bed, etc. 

"A few days ago I received from his chaplain a long 
epistle telling me how triumphantly and gloriously this 
soldier left earth for heaven." 



THE FREEDMEN. 



Under this wise administration the Freedmen were 
greatly assisted, and as far as army orders would per- 
mit, rendered them temporal aid. But the tidings of 
Eternal Life which he was sure to carry when a chance 
offered at their great gatherings, was especially pleasing. 
Many exclamations such as these were heard and recorded: 

" O bress God, Gin'al Fisk has come. That's him. 
We'll hear the truf now. He'll tell us what to do," etc. 

Sometimes these "wards of the nation," to the num- 
ber of four or five thousands would gather and listen to 
his words of wisdom, counsel, exhortation or prayer. 

Once an old colored Baptist minister whose head was 
white with the frost of eighty winters, hearing the words 
that fell from the General's lips, became very happy, and 
like good old Simeon in the Temple in Jerusalem, who, 
when he had seen the Lord, was ready to depart in peace. 

Coming up with some degree of confidence, in view 
of his years, grasping the General's hand, he exclaimed, 
" Gin'al, you is a Baptist, I knows you is a Baptist, for 
no man can talk like dat, "*cej)t he be washed all over in de 
y or don" The General was delighted, for he had a keen 
sense of the ridiculous. The old minister becoming con- 
fidential, continued berating somewhat the Methodist min- 
ister of his village, and still louder exclaimed, " De 
Methodists, Gin'al, are a low set. You know they are. 
They came from Wesley, and he was a outcast, and you 
may look de Bible clar through and not find Wesley once 
in it, but you find Baptist, Baptist, John de Baptist; and all 
de Baptists come from him! Yes, Gin'al," — with another 
squeeze of the hand — " dese Alethodlsts are a low set" 

5S 



HOW I BOUGHT A HORSE AT 
AUCTION. 



CLINTON B. FISK. 



[The following truthful narrative appeared in the 
Lantern, a paper printed in the interest of the Methodist 
Church Home of New York about nine years ago. Stum- 
bling on a copy, we thought it too good not to have a wider 
circulation. — Editor Christian Advocate, N. TJ\ 

" Bay coupe horse, 16 hands high, 6 years old, kind 
and true in all harness, free from vice, has been used in 
city and country by a priv te family, in every respect 
thoroughly reliable. Warranted sound" 

On Monday, July I, 1S7S, as Trinity bells were strik- 
ing the hour of noon, I was passing the old Post-office, at 
the corner of Nassau and Cedar streets, and saw a groom 
leading a large horse in silver-plated coupe harness up and 
down Nassau street, before an admiring sidewalk au- 
dience. As I paused a moment a catalogue was placed in 
my hands, from which I learned that Arch. Johnston, auc- 
tioneer, was at that hour selling a large lot of horses, car- 
riages, etc., etc., in the old Post-office building, and that the 
noble animal which had just attracted my attention was of 
the lot, and I would find him described in the catalogue as 
No. 6. The description was as is recorded at the begin- 
ning of this narrative. 

I had been thinking of buying for Mrs. Fisk just such 
a horse as No. 6 was said to be. In fact, I had just come 
from the bank, where I had received cash for coupons of 
her own, that day due, and I said to myself, "Surely, I will 
purchase this horse for Mrs. Fisk with her own money, 



6o 



OUR STANDARD BEARER. 



and surprise her with my generous gift when I go home to 
Seabright this afternoon. I followed the groom and horse 
into the old Post-office, and into the presence of Arch. 
Johnston, auctioneer, whose silver tongue was just then 
reading the description of No. 6. The eloquent salesman 
discoursed upon the value of said horse, and held up the 
special merits of the animal then and there, to any gentle- 
man wanting for his private family a six-year-old horse» 
kind and true in all harness, free from vice, thoroughly re- 
liable, and warranted sound, and after intimating that only 
once in a life-time was such an opportunity presented, he 
proceeded to say: " Gentlemen, how much am I offered?" 
It was a moment of supreme anxiety to me, when a gen- 
tleman in mourning toilet remarked in my hearing, that, 
" nothing but the loss of his wife, and his purpose to go to 
Europe with his children, could have ever led him to part 
with ahorse, the equal of which for kindness and thorough 
integrity he had ?iever, never before seen." Some one bid 
"Fifty dollars!" The disgust which covered the auc- 
tioneer's face all over as he heard the bid was equaled only 
by my own burning indignation that so noble a steed 
should be thus lightly estimated. The bid was immedi- 
ately raised ever so many dollars by myself. 

" Thank you, sir," said Mr. Johnston, as he again be- 
gan to announce the sum I had bid. Some one standing 
near the mourning toilet raised my bid. Mr. Johnston, 
while crying this last bid, turned his sympathetic eye upon 
me and said: " Will you not raise it two-and-a-half?" I 
nodded assent, and then through the arches of the old 
Post-office rang out, " two-half, two-half-half-half, going, 
going; last call; gone. SOLD." My name was recorded 
as purchaser. The harness was mine, too, after a little 
spirited bidding. The mourning toilet extended its con- 
gratulations to me and turned away, apparently not so sad 



HOW I BOUGHT A HORSE AT AUCTION. 6i 

as we would naturally expect him to be at parting with \ 
six-year-old bay coupe horse, 16 hands high, kind and true 
etc., etc., which had so often in city and country given 
comfort to a " private family," the maternal head of which 
was in her new-made grave at Woodlawn. The satisfac- 
tion one enjoys from the conviction of having made a good 
bargain was mine as I arranged with one of forty clamor- 
ous grooms to transfer my purchase from the old Post- 
office to the steamer Sea Bird, queen of the Navesink, for 
transportation to Seabright, via Oceanic. The Sea Bird 
sailed on the tide a little in advance of the yesse Hoyt, the 
noblest craft on the bay, and the steamer in which I was 
conveyed down the most beautiful of all waters that con- 
nect sea and city the wide world over — matchless New 
York Bay, with its islands and narrows, forts, and flags of 
all nations, Mrs. Fisk met me at Seabright. I whispered 
to " Sam," the coachman, " Drive quickly, in time to meet 
the Sea Bird at the Oceanic landing." We made a rapid 
transit from the Shrewsbury to the Navesink, and on the 
dock at Oceanic I found my six-year-old bay coupe horse, 
16 hands high, kind and true, and free from vice. I led 
him triumphantly into the presence of Mrs. Fisk, and 
made a suitable impromptu presentation speech that I had 
been working into shape all the afternoon. The madam 
did not seem to enthuse much, and "Sam" looked the ani- 
mal over with an equivocal cast of countenance peculiar 
to a doubting freedman. 

I confess that the purchase did appear to be a little 
"off color" as I examined it far away from the glare and 
rattle of the auction-room, the smooth accents of Arch. 
Johnston, and the presence of the mourning toilet, and 
there was a reluctance on the part of the horse to being 
led after a rapidly-driven carriage homeward to the Old 
Elm Tree; but I said, "Let us wait until he gets used to 



62 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

the sea-shore, and all will be right." I ordered him at- 
tached to a four-seated cabriolet, and invited Mrs. Fisk and 
some young lady guests to accompany me on a whirl over 
to the station. I gathered up the lines and gently suggested 
an onward movement to the six-year-old, kind and true, 
and free from vice, good in city or country, private family 
horse. He went not, nor could he be successfully entreated 
to move a muscle by the application of the whip. Judge 
of my mortification at that moment. In the presence of 
three women folks, orte of whom had in the morning of 
that first of July possessed coupons that would go, and 
now had in exchange a horse that would not go an inch 
except upon a more vigorous application of force than the 
heat of a day in the summer solstice would permit. It 
seemed to me that all my neighbors were out on the road 
that afternoon. The Rev. Dr. W. M. Taylor, the earnest 
preacher of the Broadway Tabernacle, who knows where 
to spend his summer vacations most happily, looked inquis- 
itively at the new turnout as he met us. The Rev. Dr. 
Thomas Hastings, of the Forty-second Street Presbyterian 
Church, whose annual visitation to the Rumson Peninsula 
for nearly twenty summers attests his wisdom, passed along, 
turninc a wondering eye and ear upon the rising and fall- 
ing inflections of the whalebone whip. St. Luke's Hutch- 
inson the banker of 40 Wall Street, and St. Paul's Stout, 
of 2^ Broad Street, whisked by us with dashing handsome 
establishments, both whistling "Whoa, Emma." It was 
aggravating. We drove slowly home by the back road 
and ordered the six-year-old into the stable for the night. 
Morning came, and so did Sam, to ask me if "I knowed 
dathoss cribs?" 

« Cribs," said I, "what's that?" 

Being rather a numerous father, and grandfather, too, 
I thought I knew all about cribs; but Sam said: 



HOW I BOUGHT A HORSE AT AUCTION. 63 

" Come out here quickly and see him take a whole 
manger into his mouth, and bite and growl." 

I went along and saw and heard him crib. 

" That hoss aint worth nothing," said Sam, and the 
disgusted African suggested that we take him to Red Bank 
and trade him off forthwith. We did get him four miles 
away to Red Bank, and tried our best to trade him off. 
Only one man would even talk about a trade, and he asked 
more boot money than he would sell his own horse for. 
He said a man ought to be paid something for allowing such 
a horse as ours on his premises. 

Sorrowfully and chap-fallen we turned away from 
Red Bank, and on our way homeward we sold that six- 
year-old, kind and true, free from vice, private family 
horse, for just about as many dollars as he had lived years, 
and the farmer who bought him says he is just as mean as 
we represented him to be. I have settled with Mrs. Fisk 
for her coupons. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes, a long time ago, in writing 
about the millennium, and what might be regarded as cer- 
tain indications of its near approach, said that among other 
signs, 

"When he that hath a horse for sale, 
And brings his merits to the proof, 

Without a lie for every nail 
That holds the iron on his hoof, 

"Till then let Cummings blaze away, 
And Miller's saints blow up the globe, 

But when you see that blessed day, 
Then order your ascension robe." 

I find no fault with Arch. Johnston, auctioner; but I 
would like to know who that mourning toilet covered. 

Seabright. 

P. S. — As a coincidence we may state that the day we 
sent this to the printer, Arch. Johnston, who, besides being 
a popular auctioneer, was a musician and literary man, died. 



AT THE BIER. 



The tender pathos of this noble man can be seen and 
even felt when grief crosses the threshold of kindred 
and friend. No man seems to be more adapted to say 
words of comfort than he. No one can excel him in pro- 
nouncing an eulogy, and the following may serve as spec- 
imen : 

Oliver Hovt died in 1887, one of New York's 
great, noble, Christian laymen. General Fisk being the 
next speaker, said: 

"At the age of twenty-one he began his business career 
in the city of New York, and for forty-three years, as mer- 
chant and manufacturer, financier and manager in large 
corporations, he went in and out before two generations of 
business associates without reproach. Pure and blameless, 
he stood in the front rank of successful men. 

" At sixteen years of age he gave his heart to Christ 
and his name to the Methodist Episcopal Church. As a 
Sunday-school scholar, Sunday-school superintendent, class 
leader, steward, trustee, district steward, manager in our 
Missionary and Educational Boards, President of the 
Board of Trustees of our chief University, and our repre- 
sentative in the highest councils of the Church at home 
and abroad, he was an honor to our Methodism the wide 
world over. 

" For thirty-five years he was the head of one of the 
brightest and happiest of homes, a tender and loving hus- 
band, an honored father. On Thursday, May 5th last, 
Oliver Hoyt died. On the following Monday devout 
men carried him to his burial, and tens of thousands of 

loving hearts, while giving glory to God, made great 

64 



AT THE BIER. 65 

lamentation over him. With every mournful ceremony 
of respect, his neighbors, his business associates, and his 
brethren lamented him. He clothed our Methodism with 
spontaneous mourning. 

" Oliver Hoyt's career was an inspiration to noble 
living and philanthropic deeds. He built his grand, well- 
rounded life on a character whose foundations were laid 
broad and deep on whatsoever things are pure, just, hon- 
est and true. His lot was cast in this wonderful time — a 
time in which there is great need for commanding commer- 
cial talents, thoroughly equipped and furnished for every 
good work, sober and earnest, and mightiest in moral pur- 
pose. Men who in the counting room, in the bustle of 
the exchanges, and everywhere bring every transaction to 
the bar of conscience with the interrogatory, c Is it right?' 
Men who speak not with faltering or stammering tongue, 
or averted eye, as if the mind were blushing at its own 
credulity; men with principles shrined in the heart-motive, 
mighty in life, and whose every act is eloquent to the 
quickening of commercial life, with the principles of 
Christian charity and uprightness, and a lifting of the 
world above the trammels of commercial selfishness. Of 
such was our Brother Hoyt, whose modest, unobtrusive, 
unostentatious, unselfish life will be a blessed memory 
with those who through the years were associated with 
him in business circles. To us in the Missionary Societies 
which summoned us to this memorial service he was our 
brother in the Lord, a wise counselor in our meetings and 
committees, a more than generous friend in his contribu- 
tions of time, service, and money to every interest of the 
Church. We met him where all his wise, rare gifts, mer- 
cantile, financial and social, were blended in one tribute 
and cast- at the feet of the Master. He listened to and 
heeded the voice from Olivet, offering salvation to all the 



66 



OUR STANDARD BEARER. 



fallen race of man, and to his utmost he made it his master 
purpose to preach the Gospel of our Lord to the ends of 
the earth through the divine agency he loved to help. 
Beginning at the Jerusalem of this New World, his con- 
tributions flowed regularly into the treasury of our City 
Mission and Church Extension Society, and hence to the 
uttermost parts of the earth through our parent Mission- 
ary Society. A passionate love of souls was burned into 
his heart. He was a man; he was but human, of like 
passions with ourselves, c to the same frailties incident,' 
4 with the same trials battling,' and recognizing his own 
humanness, he had the tenderest sympathy for his strug- 
gling, tempted fellow-men. He gathered to his great 
throbbing heart and hospitable home the highest and the 
lowliest. 

" To have known Oliver Hoyt well one must have 
been permitted to meet him in his own home, where all 
restraint was thrown off; to wander with him through 
his beautiful grounds and share with him, as he shared, 
the sports of the children; to go with him among the 
abodes of the poor, listen to his kindly words, and note 
the ceaseless charities untold to the widows and the father- 
less in the houses of the patriot dead, whose lives had 
gone into the struggle for liberty and union." 

Seldom, if ever, has General Fisk made a more 
touching address. The wit which sparkles when he 
speaks upon ordinary occasions was absent; but a devout 
pathos, which expressed and intensified the tearful sym- 
pathy of the audience, imbued all that he said. — Chris- 
tian Advocate , N. T, 



WITH THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
WORKERS. 



No one has ever been more cordially received at the 
gatherings of the International Sunday-School Conven- 
tions than General Fisk. Greetings, welcomes and honors 
were sure to await his coming, and were bestowed as the 
gift of a vast multitude upon a worthy fellow-laborer. A 
sketch of one such meeting must suffice. 

The General arrived in Chicago June i, 1887, just as 
the Fifth International Sunday-School Convention was 
assembling in " Battery D," on the lake front. A telegram 
from John O. Foster caught him at the entrance of the 
Grand Pacific Hotel, when he hastened at once to this vast 
gathering of Sunday-school workers, representing the 
world movement in a great and good cause. Ira H. Evans 
of Texas was in the chair when the General came in, and 
announced that the Executive Committee had decided to 
ask General Fisk to act as temporary presiding officer. 
When Mr. Evans said, " I present to you Gen. Clinton B. 
Fisk," the applause was tremendous. Coming forward 
near the beautifully adorned pulpit, where the hand of 
Nature and the florist had done their best, he said: 

"Dear Friends: — I shall certainly decline to take 
this place, so well filled by our Bro. Evans. I never 
object to going on the skirmish line in any sort of engage- 
ment. I am willing to help sustain him, but really shall insist 
upon his taking the place as temporary chairman. I arrived 
in the city but a few moments since, and have really had no 
time to make preparation for an impromptu speech (laugh- 
ter), or I should certainly give it to you. I am indeed glad 
to stand among you, and work among you, co-workers in 



67 



68 



OUR STANDARD BEARER. 



the vineyard of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is no light honor 
to have a seat in this convention. It is a certificate < f 
character worth having, that our neighbors thought us 
worthy to come here as their representatives in this con- 
vention. Riding on the limited express, with limited 
comforts and unlimited charges (laughter), I had time to 
contemplate this thing. Dr. Ezra, that genial secretary of 
the Judean Bible and Sunday-school Union, occupied the 
same position as does our Bro. Jacobs here to-day. (Great 
applause and laughter.) For seven days they did nothing 
but read out of God's Word from morning to lunch time, 
and they gave attention to what was read. Gathered 
about Ezra was a noble company of delegates, among 
them Zechariah, that compound prophet, «made up of 
Zechariah and Jeremiah; and there too was Nehemiah, 
the reformed mayor of Jerusalem (laughter); and the 
sons of Asaph led in the song of Zion. The hills echoed 
with the great Psalms of David: 'Forever will I love 
thy law, O Lord.' ' We should have perished could we 
not have meditated on thy Word.' Surely it was a great 
convention. From that time onward we have been mak- 
ing great progress. There may be those here to-day who 
as young men sat in that wonderful convention in New- 
York, in the Chatham Street Chapel at 10 a. m., Wednes- 
day, October 3, 1832. The American Sunday-school Union 
— God be thanked for its creation, and God's best blessing- 
be upon it forever — (applause) were the leaders in that 
movement. They consulted their missionaries and teach- 
ers all over the then twenty-four States of the Union, and 
invited them to a preliminary meeting to provide for a 
national convention. Some of you may have been in that 
meeting. It was resolved that in October following they 
would call together the leaders of the Sunday-school work 
in the United States; and they came. That was a won- 



WITH THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORKERS. 69 

derful meeting in the old Chatham Street Chapel; two 
hundred and twenty delegates from our twenty -four States 
and Territories; less than one hundred miles of railway in 
this great Republic at that time; and they came on canals, 
they came on stages, they came on horseback and they 
came on foot, some of the delegates two hundred miles. 
Contrast that with the limited express between New York 
and Chicago to-day. The presiding officer of that great 
convention was a New Jersey man, the Hon. Theodore 
Freylinghuysen, a name as ointment poured forth, at the 
bare mention of which there is the poet's longing, 

" Oh, for a touch of a vanished hand, 
And a voice that forever is still. 

Oh, for a race like him, who with whip and scourge 
should drive out of God's Temple all the trafficking sons 
of Adam. (Applause.) In the discussions of that great 
convention were heard the voices of many who are now 
slumbering with their fathers. There stood Gardiner 
Spring, the wonderful Presbyterian, and by his side the 
young man William E. Dodge. There too was Nathan 
Bangs, that sturdy old standard-bearer in the army of the 
Lord; and there was the sweet and eloquent voice of John 
P. Durbin — sanctified, glorified John P. Durbin, he who 
gave the great powers of his life in spreading Scriptural 
holiness all over this land. But, I repeat, we have made 
great progress, brethren, until we stand to-day in this mar- 
velous city of this great country, in this city of Chicago, 
which welcomes us by its kindly hospitality, and we enter 
upon the duties of this International Sunday-school Con- 
vention. Thanking you for so kindly listening to these 
fragments of talk, and for the partiality which indicated 
myself as the temporary chairman, I trust you will now 
permit me to take my seat with the privates, and let our 



/O OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

good Bro. Evans go on with the temporary work of the 
convention." (Applause.) 

B. F.Jacobs: That was the first time he ever went 
back, but I call your attention to the fact that one star 
differeth from another in glory. (Laughter.) 

General Fisk: When we were made brigadiers 
and generals we used to say that one star differed from 
\ two stars in glory. (Applause and laughter.) 

Probably no one on earth is a better presiding officer 
than this man, and his happy faculty of keeping an audi- 
ence in good humor never shone more conspicuously than 
at this meeting. After a speech from B. P. Snow, of 
Maine, he remarked: 

" Now we will turn from the deep snow of Maine, 
(laughter) to the softer, sweet climate of California. We 
will have to suggest to the speakers that they put some 
shortening in their cake. If they don't we shall not be 
able to get ours. And now I will not stand any longer be- 
tween you and Rev. S. H. Weller of California." (Ap- 
plause.) 

Farther on he said, " I noticed on taking up this pro- 
gramme that I was succeeding- Gov. Colquitt, who could 
not be here. The first time I ever saw Gov. Colquitt I 
was succeeding to him. (Laughter.) It was quite a smoky 
day that I saw his coat tails in the distance. The next 
time I met Gov. Colquitt we struck hands of Christian 
Fellowship on the ^platform of the International Conven- 
tion at Atlanta, when he welcomed us there with his elo- 
quent words. He is one of the bravest men of the world, 
and one of the truest men in the world — should have sat 
here in my place to-day, Georgia's honored Governor, and 
an honored Senator of this Union. (Applause.) Through 
all these years Gov. Colquitt and myself have been under- 
taking to do what we could to level down the embankments 



WITH THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORKERS. *]t 

which were referred to this morning, and if the speaker 
would travel southward he would find that there are none 
left: (Applause) that the snows and rains of twenty win- 
ters have washed them all down. (Applause.) Where 
our strong arms strove and brave hearts bled you will now 
hear nothing but the songs of birds and see nothing but 
the June blossoms, and on the slope's green breast that dear 
white flower whose name is Peace. (Applause.) Gov. 
Colquitt and myself at Atlanta, raised our voices to 
Heaven, 

" God of the Universe, shield us and guide us; 

Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun. 
Thou hast united us, who shall divide us? 
Keep us, oh, keep us, the many in one. 

(Applause.) And that is the sentiment filling the hearts 
of all good men from the silvery lakes of the North to the 
Gulf of Mexico." 

The committee had decided long years ago that the 
State where the Convention was held, was entitled to the 
permanent chairman, and so William Reynolds, of Peoria, 
was selected. In introducing him General Fisk said: 

" It gives me great pleasure, brethren and sisters, to 
present to you my good brother Reynolds as your perma- 
nent chairman. I have known him intimately these many 
years, and in all Illinois — and it is saying considerable — 
we can find no better man thus to honor. He is one of 
those industrious, successful laymen, who, walking along 
the pathways of this life, consecrates all there is of him 
to the service of the jBlessed Master, (applause) a man 
who in this life, amid all its ins and outs, brings all his 
transactions to the bar of conscience with the interrogatory, 
Is it right? (Applause.) Brother Reynolds, I have great 
pleasure in introducing you to the most magnificent body 
you ever presided over." (Applause.) 



72 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

There was considerable regret that the temporary 
chairman was not continued as the permanent presiding 
officer. 

Mr. C. W. Murdfeldt, of Missouri, said he had a 
resolution he desired to submit to the convention. They 
had all heard of the gentleman who had come to Chicago 
on the limited express at unlimited expense, and he believed 
those present would like to express their sense of obligation 
to General Fisk for presiding at the temporary organiza- 
tion. He therefore offered the following: 

"Resolved,. That the hearty thanks of the convention 
are due to General Clinton B. Fisk, acting chairman pro 
tern, for the very happy and felicitous manner in which he 
has put this convention upon its feet and started it upon its 
onward course." 

Under the rule the resolution had to go to the Execu- 
tive Committee, who reported it at once, with the recom- 
mendation that it be passed. 

The resolution was adopted by a rising vote, followed 
by prolonged applause. 

General Fisk said: Mr. Chairman, this is very 
large thanks for a small service. I am only grateful that 
I have been able to do anything that has promoted the 
interests of this convention. I am sure I ought to be 
grateful on being called to such an honorable position, and 
without referring my resolution to the Executive Commit- 
tee, I vote unanimously my gratitude to this convention. 
(Laughter and applause.) 

While the great convention was discussing "Sunday 
School Temperance," the chairman said: 

I cannot allow this subject to pass without giving the 
audience the great pleasure of listening for a few minutes 
to that General in the great Temperance army, Clinton B. 
Fisk. (Loud applause). 



WITH THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORKERS. ^3 

ADDRESS BY CLINTON B. FISK. 

Mr. Chairman and Friends: — The chairman really 
usurped the chair, so you will all bear witness that I was 
presiding at this hour. 

I would not dare attempt to speak to you on this 
theme. My views are a little too pronounced for a gen- 
eral assemblage like this. (Cries of "Go on, go on.") I 
am in most hearty sympathy with everything said by our 
friend, Dr. Milner, of Kansas, that we cannot be too 
thorough in the instruction of our children in the line of 
temperance in the Sunday-school and in the church. The 
church ought to lead in this great reform. ("Amen.") It 
is our province to do so. From every pulpit should thun- 
der anathemas against the liquor traffic. (" Amen.") And 
from the great majority of pulpits we do hear such thun- 
der. Occasionally we hear a voice a little uncertain. One 
great clergyman of this country with whom I have had 
long acquaintance and much fellowship, writing in strong 
terms, speaking in strong terms about the religious drink- 
ing from the day of the Saviour down! Oh, how much woe 
has come out of just such talk. As a manager of our 
Christian Home for Intemperate Men, in New York, I 
come in contact every week with the drunkard from every 
circle of society in this broad land; the highest lawyers; 
the richest merchants ; occasionally a preacher of the Gos- 
pel — slaves to the drinking habit, come there to see if we, 
in our institution, can cure them. Not long since there 
came to us a young man from Milwaukee, sent to me with 
special letters from his minister, asking me to give him my 
special attention. I did so. We let him go from the in- 
stitution we thought a reformed man. In less than a week 
I was summoned to a little hotel on the Bowery to see a 
young man that they said was near death. I hastened 
down. I did not know who I was to meet. I ran up the 



74 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

stairway to his room and there on his death-bed, struggling 
with delirium tremens, was this Milwaukee young man. 
" Oh," I said, "my brother, how did you come to fall?" 
And in his delirium he said: " O, this was but just a little 
of religious drinking," quoting the words of this great 
man, one of the ablest who stands in any Christian pulpit 
in this country. 

I came across a young man last year up near the Dela- 
ware water gap of a different sort — a young man who had 
great courage. Up there near the water gap, in the side 
of the mountain, is a beautiful village, where many peo- 
ple from New York, Newark and Jersey City, have their 
summer homes. Just in the side of the mountain are two 
little churches, a Presbyterian church and a Methodist 
church. The young man had been sent over from the 
Philadelphia conference to preach in the Methodist church, 
and the official brethren had the usual meeting to estimate 
his salary. A good many of you, brethren, have sat in 
such councils. They fixed his salary at a thousand dollars, 
a large compensation, he thought. And then they began 
to post him about the peculiarities of the church; and 
about this family and that family, so that he might know 
just how to manage affairs and go along smoothly. Then 
they further said to him, " Now, in the summer time a 
good many foreigners, people from the city, come to our 
little church. One of the richest brewers of Newark sits 
here in the summer time in one of our best pews, and pays 
fifty dollars a year toward the salary. He drives the finest 
carriage that comes up to our little village. His wife 
dresses beautifully; his daughters more so, and his sons 
are perfect patterns. Now, then, while he is in the church 
in the summer time, we would like to have you go a little 
slow about saying anything on the temperance question. 
Don't say anything about the liquor traffic. Preach about 



WITH THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORKERS. 75 

the Mormons or the Lost Tribes, anything but that, (laugh- 
ter) or we shall lose his presence among us and his fifty 
dollars, and we rather like to have him drive his carriage 
to our little church— monogram on the carriage door, foot- 
man and groom on the carriage, harness beautiful — noth- 
ing that goes to the Presbyterian church is anything like 
it, and we want to keep it. (Laughter.) The young 
man scratched his head a little. He had been educated at 
the Drew Theological Seminary, where they teach that to 
preach against intemperance is one of the things to do 
everywhere and anywhere. He rose to his feet, and the 
presiding elder told me that as he began to straighten up, 
he looked to be about eleven feet high. " Now," he said, 
" brethren, what did you fix this salary at?" "A thou- 
sand dollars." "You just take fifty dollars off. I must 
have a shot at that party the first thing." (Loud and tu- 
multuous applause. ) And they could not persuade him out 
of it. Just think of the stubborn fellow! By and by the 
beautiful June days came, and among those who stopped 
at the little Methodist church on the hillside came the 
brewer with a brand new carriage, everything better and 
brighter than ever before. He filed into the pew. What 
should this young man do but open the Bible, and for 
about an hour he poured out on that audience all the woes 
that God had pronounced against the men that put the bot- 
tle to their neighbors' lips. One of the stewards told me 
that the ceiling of the little church was fairly blistered be- 
fore noon. Well, now, what was the result? Why, at 
the close of the sermon this brewer came forward to the 
altar and took this young man bv the hand and said, " Do 
you know me?" " Yes, sir." " Did you know my busi- 
ness?" " Yes." " Did you know I was a brewer?" "Yes." 
"Did you preach that sermon for me?" " For you only." 
" Well, now," said he, " I like the courage of a man that 



*]6 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

will do that." (Applause.) Says he " Give us your hand. 
I have been in the habit of giving fifty dollars a year to 
this church. I will give you a hundred dollars." You see 
the brewer was a man of common sense. The official 
brethren had looked upon him as a man of dollars and cents. 
(Laughter.) O, I tell you, my friends, that we who are 
endeavoring to kill off this liquor' traffic have great cause 
to be thankful. The world is moving on, no doubt about 
that. Many of us standing on the skirmish line of this 
fight have a great deal to contend with. No doubt about 
that. Sour faces of friends turned against us, because you 
may happen to strike where it will hurt somebody. Min- 
isters feel it. People in the pews feel it. Citizens feel it 
as they walk along the streets. The shot that echoed from 
Sioux City, and that dreadful murder in Mississippi the 
other day — all these things are on the line of breakers, the 
barbarism of the whole liquor traffic coming to the surface. 
As I left my home in New Jersey, a dispatch was 
placed in my hands saying, " Mr. Smith, a young lawyer 
of Bridgeton, New Jersey, had just been waylaid the night 
before because he was a leader in the Law and Order 
party, nearly beaten to death in the alley, his home just 
across the street; his wife heard the screams as he said, 
4 Oh God, my wife and baby!' " Ah, that sound will go 
echoing over not only New Jersey, but all over this broad 
land. (Applause.) We Christian people who put our 
trust in God are going right on with this fight with our 
faces to the sky. (Applause.) It is a great thing in any 
work to think that you are walking with God; that the un- 
seen forces are on either side of you as you walk along, 
and that that strong arm is reaching down out of the heav- 
ens to take every man and woman by the hand who would 
destroy this great evil and save the children from great 
destruction. 



WITH THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORKERS. 77 

" Happy he whose inward ear 
Spirit comfortings can hear, 

Above the scornful laughter, 
And where hatred's fagots burn, 
Through the smoke may still discern 

The coming grand hereafter. 

"For well he knows that never yet 
Plow of truth was vainly set 

In the world's broad fallow. 
Other hands may sow the seed, 
After hands on hill and' mead, 

Reap the harvests mellow." 

My dear friends, it is for you and me to stand in our 
places to-day. God takes care of the to-morrow. Through- 
out all this land we have no such evil to confront, in all 
our Sunday-school and church work, as the liquor traffic. 
No one of God's chosen ministers of reconciliation and 
peace, within the sound of my voice to-day, but what will 
tell you that they have no such obstacle in their work as 
that— no such obstacle in the way of the progress of the 
church toward the millennium as the saloon. Now, are 
we going to stand by the saloons, or by our homes and the 
Christian church and with God? We are coming directly 
to that point, my friends. The enemy, the saloon, is tri- 
umphant to-day, holding on its course the most destructive 
force in our American society, and they wonder what we 
are going to do about it. Oh, I would that every good 
man and every good woman and child in this broad land, 
regardless of creed, political or religious, would stand to- 
gether for the destruction of this evil. (Applause.) To 
do it, we must take the children. 

I have been delighted with all I have heard said about 
it, especially that Home school, that the brother from New 
York brought out. Down in Jersey we are doing this 
among the families who come merely to spend the sum- 



78 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

mer, and who are quite happy to forget all about Sunday- 
schools — of course there is nobody in this house would do 
a thing of that sort — I understand that very well, but some 
families and some churches do go down to Long Branch 
and other places and forget the Sunday-school hour. We 
are organizing among us a home Sunday-school. We con- 
duct it precisely as we do in church. Every morning of 
the summer in my own home, at half -past nine o'clock, we 
have just as good a Sunday-school as there is on earth. 
(Applause.) Our own family are gathered together and 
all the families in the neighborhood are attracted. We 
happen to have a piano and organ. My wife plays one 
and my daughter the other; my son plays the violin. The 
music is all selected on Saturday. The lessons are studied 
thoroughly, and we go all through the primary, interme- 
diate and senior departments as regularly as we do at 
school. It brings in ail the neighbors, and they in turn are 
organizing schools of that sort. We take up a collection 
— (laughter) — take up a collection for the missionary cause. 
A hundred dollars gathered up that way last summer from 
the children on Rumson Hill. Go home sinners, and do 
likewise. (Laughter.) 

You must pardon me for taking this time to speak to 
you. I did not do it; Brother Reynolds did. 

Mr. Reynolds. I take the responsibility. 

Mr. Fisk. Now, that I am on my feet, I would like 
to give a little notice for our Brother Foster, who sits right 
down in front of me. He it is who is calling the reunion 
of the Christian Commission and the Sanitary Commission 
and the White Cross, in a meeting to be held August 4th to 
7th, at Ocean Grove; a reunion of all the old Christian 
Commission Workers, Sanitary Commission Workers. 
All those who did anything in the war to help us along, 
both North and South, are invited to come there and strike 




79 



8o 



OUR STANDARD BEARER. 



hands in fellowship in August. Among the happiest hours 
of my army life were those when these good people came 
down to see us. And as I sat here on this platform yester- 
day, looking out, I saw two men w r ho came to us in Helena, 
Arkansas, and spent a few days, speaking to us out of 
God's word, and encouraging us to be good and true men, 
good soldiers for the country, but better soldiers for the 
Lord Jesus Christ. One of these men was an eminent 
laymen, a young man then, from Central Illinois. He sits 
here to-day as the presiding officer of the Convention. 
(Loud and continuous applause.) He was conducted by 
our good Brother Burnell, who goes all around the world, 
warning sinners to flee from the wrath to come, whether 
they be soldiers or not. I know that Brother Foster would 
be glad to give everybody in this house a copy of this 
paper, the Reunion Call, if you should go to the table and 
ask him for it. 

" I will ask General Fisk to give some parting words." 
He then said: 

" I just gave the gavel to President Reynolds, telling 
him I would leave Chicago in ten minutes, to meet an en- 
gagement in New York to-morrow evening. I merely want 
to say how glad I am that I have been permitted to spend 
these three blessed days with you on this mount of peace 
and joy. 

"When we were singing a little while ago, our Broth- 
er Excell stopped his voice of song and said to me, { I 
never heard anything like this; in all the multitudes I 
have led in song T never heard such singing as in Battery 
D from this International Sunday-school Convention.' 
He said, ' It must be because they are Sunday-school peo- 
ple; they learned to sing; they have melody in their 
hearts, and they sing heartily as unto the Lord.' 

" The music of this Convention has been a great feat- 



WITH THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORKERS. 8l 

ure, and I want to express my thanks to Brother Excels 
for what he has done for this Convention with these won- 
derful songs. (Loud applause.) 

" It is a good thing for us to come together. I wish 
we could come together oftener. In these great masses 
of people from different climes and countries, where we 
supplement each other in the completeness of humanity, 
all these are steps in the advancing kingdom of God. 
Somebody has told us that the world itself is an instru- 
ment of music, not yet fully strung, but by-and-by 
when every coast shall be peopled with lovers of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, when every mountain barrier shall be 
overcome, when every abyss shall be spanned for the un- 
interrupted progress of the King's highway of holiness, 
and the people of the earth shall, as in the prophetic vis- 
ion, flow together to the mountain of the Lord's house; 
when that day shall come, when the harmony of common 
good shall persuade the lion and the lamb to lie down to- 
gether; when good order shall rise above all violence, and 
law silence all conflict; when religion shall conserve soci- 
ety as virtue conserves the soul; when men, sitting in 
senate or synod, in conference or convention, shall strive 
for the truth instead of triumph; when no longer the 
dingy bar-room or gilded saloon shall tempt frail man- 
hood or womanhood to fling away honor and hope and 
happiness, and life itself at the throne of the drunkard; 
(applause) when every father shall become a priest in 
his own household, offering the daily sacrifice of praise and 
prayer; when every mother shall teach her lisping child 
to prattle the name of Jesus; when there shall be but one 
story that every child shall lisp, one ir.cmory that every 
nation shall cherish, and one name that shall be above 
every name, then this world of ours, my brethren, will 
give its sound in harmony with the infinite intelligence, 



82 



OUR STANDARD BEARER. 



,and the universe become one vast academy of music. 
(Applause.) 

"Now to hasten that glad day we are here. That is 
our end. Mav God's blessing be upon you during the re- 
maining hours of this Convention, go with us to all our 
homes. We shall never again strike the hands of fellow- 
ship together. Before another Triennial Convention 
many of these voices will be hushed. Oh, that they may 
sing up yonder the new, new song, and, 

" If we who sing a parting song 
Have mortal meeting never, 
There is a journey, short or long, 
Where meetings last forever. 

"All hail, thou fairest land of lands, 
Where flowers never wither; 
Although we here unclasp our hands, 
Our feet shall journey thither. 

"Unfading flowers we bear aloft, 
Unceas ng songs we'll sing, 
Unending jubilee we'll keep, 
In the presence of our King. 

" Into the blessed reunion may we all at last come, to 
go no more out forever. Amen." (Loud applause.) 

Dr. Grammar, of Maryland: Mr. President, I 
offer this resolution : 

"Resolved-. That the thanks of the Convention be 
extended to Gen. Fisk for the very able, eloquent, and 
most expressive manner in which he discharged the duties 
of the Chair, and that we follow him to his home with 
our blessings and prayers that God may raise up many 
laymen like him, who adds to his eloquence religion, and 
to his bravery in the field the courage of a soldier's heart 
for Christ." 

The Resolution was unanimously carried. 



WITH THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORKERS. .S3 

The impression he made on that representative Con- 
vention was very great indeed. The departure was a be- 
reavement, and the workers felt that a father had left 
their council room to their deep regret. One thrilling 
sentence he uttered was caught up and heralded all abroad. 
It was this — 

"GO ON WITH THE FIGHT." 

We sent a letter after him asking from his own pen 
a little enlargement of this idea, that it might be heralded 
far and wide. In due time the following came back, and 
we certainly believe it to be a thrilling command from a 
great leader: 

" Go on with thejight — in the home, in the pulpit and 
pew, in the prayer meeting and at the ballot box, on the 
platform, and in the press, everywhere, and at all times, 
until the liquor traffic shall be outlawed, and the dramshop 
on American soil shall forever be closed. The Christian 
Church ought to lead in this great reform. It is her pecu- 
liar province to do so. Yet all the power of the Christian 
state should be in alliance with the Christian Church in 
battling for the overthrow of this monstrous evil, which 
in open day and in the darkness of night carries on its 
infamous business beneath the shadows of our church 
spires, and at the portals of our homes. The State throws 
its mantle of respectability over the rum -seller. It legiti- 
matizes his murderous occupation, and the saloon, defiant 
and contemptuous, holds its triumphant course. Let us 
fling full in the face of the rum power our defiance and 
challenge to battle for immediate and absolute prohibition. 
The conflict will be sharp, but from the death grapple 
truth and temperance will rise unbruised and victorious, 
and the names of their defenders will be written in sun- 
beams over the portals of a nation redeemed from the 



84 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

thralldom of the saloon. The children at the fireside of 
every home, and in every Sunday-school should be taught 
that the duty of Christian citizenship is by all means to 
hasten the day when the conflict shall be squarely set 
between the home and the dramshop. We need have no 
fears of the result of the fight. The aroused conscience 
of the American people is inevitable — a great Captain leads 
on and his voice, like the trumpet of destiny, calls us 
to duty. 

" Wake, soldier, wake, the trumpet's sound 
Breaks on the breathing stillness round, 
And starting from the trembling ground, 
Messiah's host is marshaling. 

" Arm, soldier, arm, with spear and bow, 
With all God's burning armor glow, 
For far and near the keen-eyed foe 
His fiery dart is brandishing. 

" Fight, soldier, fight, no earthly rest 
Be thine by mortal foes oppressed, 
With lifted sword and waving crest 
Our Captain leads to conquering. 

" Go on with the fight until home shall trample the 
saloon in the dust of defeat." 

These stirring orders awakened our lyre, and Robert 

K. Moore set the words to a beautiful tune, which W. P. 

Dunn & Co. of Chicago, have published for cheering on 

the conflict, 
v 

Go on with the battle, the heroes are waking, 
And shouting in majesty, " Onward the van!" 

The ranks of the enemy, tattered and breaking, 
Are melting away in the doom of the clan. 

Chorus. — Then forward the army 
And onward forever; 
Go on with the battle, 
March onward the van. 



WITH THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORKERS. 85 

Go on with the batttle, let no one surrender, 
Tho' legions of darkness be many and strong, 

For God is our trust, and with Him for defender, 
The victory is certain, though tarrying long. — Cho. 

The armies of God are emblazoned in glory, 

The sheen of their banners is flashing and bright, 

These ranks of Emmanuel echo the story, 

" Your conquest is certain, go on with the fight." — Cho. 

The fallen are many, the wounds are appalling, 

The foe is relentless, inhuman and bold; 
While " Help!" from the millions of voices is calling, 

The zeal for this conflict will never grow old. — Cho. 

Then close up the ranks and stand shoulder to shoulder. 

March forward in unison, courage and might; 
Attack with fierce onset, grow bolder and bolder, 

True valor is winning, go on with the fight. — Cho. 

—J. O. F. 



HIS PRINCIPLES. 



No better method of finding a man's principles in any 
cause has ever been found, than to let him enunciate the 
same, himself. 

General Fisk has been so long before the public that it 
is useless to gather scraps here and there for an outline of 
his convictions on the temperance issue. He has been a bold 
and uncompromising advocate of national prohibition 
with such clearness of utterance that no one has questioned 
where he stood, or what he was contending for and ex- 
pected would come sooner or later. 

At a discussion held between H. K. Carroll, LL.D., 
and Gen. Clinton B. Fisk in the Academy of Music, Brook 
lyn, February ^Zy-AS&S, under the auspices of the Prohibi- 
tion party, the question submitted was as follows: 

"The Temperance Reform does not require a National 
Prohibition Party." 

, On this theme Dr. Carroll spoke at some length and 
presented the strongest arguments possible for that side of 
the question. We should be glad to present his able ad- 
dress in full, had we room, but the masterly reply of Gen- 
eral Fisk is perhaps the best of all his utterances, and we 
give such selections as are pertinent to our theme. 



86 



GENERAL FISK'S SPEECH IN THE 
ACADEMY OF MUSIC, BROOK- 
LYN, N. Y. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — A little bit 
of a fellow will cause a great deal of trouble. (Laughter.) 
If I were to go out to Plainfield, N. J., into Dr. Carroll's 
beautiful home, and go up and stand by the crib where his 
beautiful baby sleeps to-night, and should say, "Doctor, 
what in the world is the use of this baby anyhow? Let's 
destroy him." Why, he would put me out of the house at 
once. The baby is going to grow and be a man — be a 
Doctor Carroll some time; (laughter) and the Prohibition 
Party by and by will be a party, my friends, beyond any 
doubt, and Doctor Carroll will be one of its honored mem- 
bers. (Laughter and applause.) 

I would like to correct just a few mistakes of Doctor 
Carroll's. He says we are not for local option, even. 
There has been no local option fighting in all the North- 
ern States that has not been led by the Prohibitionists — 
not one. (Applause.) Professor Dickie will tell you that 
in Michigan where a dozen or fifteen counties have gone 
for local option that our people were at the front of the 
battle. It was my old State. I wrote as strong a letter as 
my hand could pen, which was published throughout the 
State, inviting every Prohibitionist to stand at the very front 
of that battle, and to fight all they could, and none who 
stood at the front of the fight in Michigan fought with 
more earnestness and courage than did the Prohibitionists, 
Professor Dickie himself leading the battle. (Applause.) 
I gave four weeks of the hardest work of my life by the 



8S OtJR STANDARD BEARER. 

side of my Brother Griffin, who is on this platform, the 
father of the Anti-Saloon movement in the Republican 
party — and who beat us? The leaders of the Republican 
party (applause) and boasted of it, and boast to-day of 
that fact. 

I tell you, my friends, that although we are small you 
can see we have provoked the Republicans to a good many 
good works, if not to love. (Laughter and applause.) 

" Loyalty to principle is higher than loyalty to party. 
The first is founded upon God's truth, the other upon the 
devices of man. Far above any flickering light or battle 
lantern of party is the everlasting Sun of Truth, in whose 
beauty are the duties of men." So said New England's 
great champion of liberty more than two-score years ago, 
when marching with the skirmishing builders of a new 
political faith. He and his associates were laying broad 
and deep the foundation of a new political party through 
which, under God, the nation should have a new birth of 
freedom. 

Holier cause has never appeared in history than that 
which has summoned this vast throng to a calm and dis- 
passionate discussion of the momentous question of the 
hour. We are all agreed touching one thing, that the liq- 
uor traffic in this country of ours is the one great over- 
shadowing evil of these times. The New York Tribune 
says it is the "heaviest clog in the progress of our country," 
and that if all the other evils that afflict society are put to- 
gether they will not nearly equal in weight and sinister 
effect the one erroneous and universal mischief of intem- 
perance. "Sooner or later," says the same journal, "it will 
be necessary for the intelligent and progressive elements 
of society to drop all lesser enterprises, and continue in one 
determined assault upon that vice which is to-day the heav- 
iest clog upon progress and the deepest disgrace of the 



GENERAL FISK'S SPEECH. 89 

nineteenth century." These are true and brave words fitly 
spoken. All good men of all political faiths admit the 
truth of that statement. We have differing judgments 
only in the methods of resistance to and ultimate overthrow 
of this monstrous evil. The intelligent and progressive 
elements of society are more and more believing that a suc- 
cessful assault upon the great evil can be made only by 
massing these better elements of society in a permanent 
political organization, firm, enthusiastic and united, under 
the banner of Prohibition, borne by a National Prohibi- 
tion Party, and we cannot see how any one recognizing 
morals as the soul of all true politics can hesitate for a mo- 
ment to stand with us. 

The liquor traffic is intrenched in our National 
politics. The Nation is the senior partner in the manu- 
facture of liquor, receiving without direct investment of 
capital — other than the bodies and souls of its people — 
fabulous sums of money as its proportion of the profits — 
sums so large that the national treasury is bursting with 
fullness, so large that its fullness became the only theme 
on which the President had aught to communicate in his 
annual message to the present Congress. Is there any 
question more National than this? It cannot be settled, 
except by a National political party. Neither of the old 
dominant parties will grapple with the monstrous evil 
which sits enthroned in the places of power controlled by 
both paities, and in defiant spirit says to each, <•'• Keep 
your hands off of me, or I will rend the one more hostile 
to me by defeat and give success to the more friendly or- 
ganization." The liquor traffic entered national politics 
almost forty years ago, when, in 1851, the Distillers and 
Bartenders held their first National Convention it the city 
of New York, under a call which declared that the pur- 
pose of said Convention "would be the organization of a 



gO OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

political party to resist the enforcement, secure the repeal 
and resist the enactment of all temperance and sundry- 
laws." The leaders in both the old Whig and Democrat- 
ic parties, disturbed by this manifestation, said with great 
promptness, "What do you want of a new party? We 
are both with you, and the party to which you will give 
the most votes will do the best by you." Two years later 
when there had been the rumbling of conscience out 
West, and unpalatable utterances by several of the large 
religious bodies of the land, another National Convention 
was called at Cleveland, Ohio, whose only deliverance 
was a resolution unanimously adopted, that "liquor men 
would vote for no candidate who was not pledged to op- 
pose in earnest and with decision the enactment of pro- 
hibitory laws." The Democratic party hastened to place 
itself on record as the constant, permanent friend and pro- 
tector of the saloon, and thus far has kept its word. 
Meantime in the decade following came the political 
storm in which the old Whig party was wrecked and the 
Republican party came to position and power, overthrow-, 
ing slavery and subduing Democracy. The friends of 
liberty and Union were hopeful that the Republican 
party, purified by its long contest with slavery, would go 
on to perfection and take up with earnestness the destruc- 
tion of the American saloon. Alas! it did not; it would 
not do it. It saw the Brewers' Congress organize in 
1862 with the avowed purpose of exciting a direct, as 
well as indirect, influence on political relations. Annually 
thereafter that devil-fish gathered within its slimy embrace 
the leaders of the dominant party until in 1872, the Na- 
tional platform was so constructed at the dictation and by 
the interpretation of the liquor dealers as to place the party 
in hostility to all so-called temperance and Sunday laws. 
The president of the Liquor Association said in contem- 



GENERAL FISK'S SPEECH. <)t 

plating this action of the party: "I believe that it is only 
a question of time and our entire nation, government and 
people will bow with affection and respect to the genial 
and beneficent reign of King Gambrinus." The liquor 
interest established its headquarters in Washington under 
the very shadow of the National Capitol, placing there, 
with unlimited authority and an unlimited treasury, one of 
the ablest men their money could buy, with instructions 
to defeat by all possible means all National legislation 
that might in the slightest manner be prejudicial to the 
liquor traffic. We of the National Temperance Society 
can testify with what fidelity Mr. Louis Schade has dis- 
charged his duty. It has been impossible as yet with all 
the efforts we could concentrate to secure the appoint- 
ment of a non-partisan commission to inquire into the ef- 
fects of alcoholic drinks upon our people. Mr. Schade 
and his friends said: "Our occupation would be gone if 
the people knew what it cost them." The Liquor Traf- 
fic cracked its slave-driving whip around the ears of our 
National legislators, and, without distinction of party or 
previous condition of political servitude, Congress hastened 
to obey the command of King Alcohol— listen to the man 
who in the interest of the saloon shaped the national leg- 
islation. Thus he spoke to his employes, our governing 
classes in th's land of Washington, Lincoln and Grant: 
" The future is ours. The enormous influx of emigration 
will in a few years overreach the puritanical element in 
every State in the Union." 

What say you to such utterances, ye sons of Puri- 
tans who make yourselves hoarse on Forefathers' Day in 
this Temple of Music, proclaiming the virtues of your an- 
cestors? And when some indiscreet, conscientious Repub- 
lican had spoken out in meeting against the tyranny and 
arrogance of the liquor traffic, their famous orator said: 



9^ OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

" If you will only make an earnest effort to cleanse the 
Republican party from the rank and weedy growth of 
illiberality and intolerance from lecture-room and pulpit, 
through prejudice and ignorance, we shall find the leader 
and organizer we may need. But should separation from 
a polluted Republican party become necessary, even if 
only for the especial purpose to crush prohibitory laws, 
and procure condemnation at the seat of the Federal Gov 
ernment of all compulsory measures, it becomes impor- 
tant to consider whether we can look, either for new polit 
ical connections with an existing party, or for the material 
for the organization of a new one." The dominant party, 
to this insolence, replied simply: " Don't think of moving- 
out of the family mansion; take the best rooms for your- 
selves. On with the whisky dance. Let Joy be uncon- 
fined." 

Touching the Commission of Inquiry, this noble 
director of Congressional action said : " For the last five 
years the temperance fanatics have at the beginning of 
every session of Congress introduced immense numbers 
of petitions from all parts of the country, every one 
of them asking for the appointment of a commission 
of five to investigate the liquor traffic. At the first glance- 
one might suppose that such a commission would do no 
harm ; but would the fanatics renew their efforts for such 
a commission every year if they meant no harm? Sus- 
pecting everything coming from, that quarter, I have, 
through my paper, the Washington Sentinel, and also in 
person, strenuously opposed the adoption of such a bill, 
and though the latter has passed the Senate several times, 
it has always failed in the House." Speaking of the polit- 
ical affiliations of the liquor dealers, he said: " Three- 
fourths of them are Republicans. We can count upon 
their protection to the industry which contributes so large- 



GENERAL FISK's SPEECH. 93 

ly toward sustaining the government, and I assure you in 
general that the bonds of good- will between the govern- 
ment and ourselves are more solid than ever." And he 
spoke truthfully, for in that same year the National Com- 
mittee of the Republican party turned away from its 
council at the National Convention at Chicago, an em- 
bassy which carried in its portfolio the fate of parties. 
Frances E. Willard, in behalf of the homes and Christian 
civilization of the country, asked of that committee bread, 
and they gave her a stone, and then stoned the prophets 
who would have saved them. 

In 1872 the Republican platform was constructed in 
the interest of the saloons and the Sabbath breakers, much 
to the sorrow of a host of its most loyal adherents; for in 
the ranks of that magnificent organization dwelt the con- 
science in our national politics, as had been indicated by the 
unrest on the temperance question so disturbing to the liquor 
interest, as revealed by the mutterings to which your atten- 
tion has already been invited. Men who had graduated 
from the old Freesoil and Liberty parties into affiliation 
with the new party for freedom when that battle was won, 
had been longing for its power to strike down that greater 
enemy of true and Christian government than human 
slavery — the liquor traffic — but the leaders gave no sign, 
expressed no hopeful word. 

In that same year of 1872 the National Prohibition 
Party made its first nomination, and, as a national party 
from that day onward it has kept its flags flying, and they 
will continue to fly until they fly in victory. (Applause.) 

It will be observed by the brief historic outline of 
party action and of the growth and power of the dram- 
shop, that the saloon entered into and intrenched itself in 
our national politics a long time ago. To successfully 
fight an enemy we must go where he is, assault him and 



94 °UR STANDARD BEARER. 

drive him from his citadel of power. The old parties 
would not — indeed they could not with their troops of 
mixed and doubtful faith — undertake a campaign for the 
destruction of the rum power. Within their ranks there 
were and yet remain radical differences on all great radical 
questions. They are hopelessly divided on questions of 
tariff, internal improvements, civil-service reform and other 
important issues, and united only in a scramble for the 
spoils of office. The Outs want the Ins. 

Our new party is the immediate necessity of the hour. 
The National Prohibition Party, demanded by the aroused 
conscience of the Nation, has for its chief issue the over- 
throw of our governments greatest enemy. The prohibition 
of the liquor traffic is not only a great moral issue, but a 
political issue, made so by the arrogant assumptions of 
authority by the snloon in both of the dominant parties. 
We would make prohibition an all-controlling force in our 
national politics, and build all other political interests 
around it — civil service, revenue, labor, municipal and suf- 
frage reforms and other great issues which can never be 
settled so long as the liquor traffic is permitted to exist. 
(Applause.)- 

Great parties are created for a specific purpose, to 
grapple with some great issue, to overthrow some great 
wrong. An aroused public conscience forms an associa- 
tion to uphold, advance and develop certain principles 
regarded by them as important to the well-being of the 
State. They push on to success, fulfill their mission and 
disintegrate. 

Daniel Webster in 1825, differs from Dr. Carroll in 
1888. He said in Faneuil Hall these words: "New 
parties will arise, growing out of new events and new 
questions; but as to those old parties which sprang from 
controversies now no longer pending or from feelings 



GENERAL FISk's SPEECH. 95 

which time and other causes have now changed or greatly 
allayed, I do not believe that they can long remain." 

How senseless the outcry against a so-called " Third 
Party." It was once the old party of freedom that was 
so bitterly denounced — that organization at whose cradle 
as boys some of us stood and rocked the infant party. As 
the infant Hercules in his cradle strangled the serpents, so 
the old anti-slavery party gave token of like precocious 
strength, and in its day of power accomplished more than 
any other political party on any continent in this great cen- 
tury. Yet it was once contemptuously called a little party, 
a third party. The monopoly of the corn laws was first 
assailed by the Radicals of England. They were re-in- 
forced by aristocratic* Whigs, but were yet a third party. 
By and by the leader of the Tories, Sir Robert Peel him- 
self, stood in honorable coalition with Mr. Cobden, and the 
final overthrow of the great monopoly was accomplished. 
All England had been ringing for years with the outcry 
against the new party. Men wrote and spoke of its utter 
uselessness, and proclaimed that all necessary reform could 
be secured through the old parties. When the public con- 
science sleeps and snores under the soothing lullaby of 
loyalty to party right or wrong, good men should pause 
and protest. When any man has learned to value his politi- 
cal party more highly than he does truth and justice, it is 
time for him to sever his connection with that party. 

A half-century ago, when the little party for freedom 
began to be a disturbing element among the Whigs of 
New England, and learned men became eloquent over the 
folly of a new party, writing able essays and declaiming 
on every corner that all needful anti-slavery reforms could 
be secured thrc ugh the " Good-enough Freesoil party" 
already in existence, up rose William Ellery Channing in 
his pulpit, and among many wise and eloquent word said 



$6 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

this: " The Whig interest seems to be too strong to be put 
down at once; but it cannot survive unless it can speedily 
build on some higher principle than now governs it. 
The political state of the country is exceedingly perplexed. 
The Whig party has but little unity and is threatened with 
dissolution. Would the Democrats break up, too, and 
could we start afresh, how glorious would be the result!" 
and so it would be now. (Applause.) 

The Rev. Dr. Francis Wayland, in resenting the 
sneers and scoffs which, like an avalanche, threatened to 
overwhelm him and drive him from his pulpit, because, 
forsooth, he dared to "look higher than an old party plat- 
form, said to the throng clamoring for his life's blood 
almost: " You must surrender party for moral principle. 
Let all good men do this and they will form a party by 
themselves, a party acting in the fear of God and sustained 
by the arm of omnipotence. Let virtuous men unite on 
the ground of moral principle, and the tyranny of party 
will be crushed." 

In this, our time, all good and true men should stand 
together in one party, making the prohibition of the liq- 
uor traffic the paramount issue. It overshadows all others 
in results — economic, social, political and moral. It is the 
only question absolutely national in its character. Every 
section of our great land, all latitudes and longitudes, every 
State and country, city, town, village and hamlet is threat- 
ened with the leprosy we would destroy. The insatiate 
greed of capital and the tyranny of misguided labor would 
dissolve like frost in a flood of sunshine before the rising 
day of Prohibition (applause); the farmer and the me- 
chanic, the capitalist and the laborer, would easily adjust 
their difference in the presence of the drunkard's dead 
Moloch. 

The time hastens on when the good men of all parties 



GENERAL FISk's SPEECH. 97 

— the moral, the intelligent and the patriotic — will be mar- 
shaled under the pure white banner of Prohibition. The 
vicious, the ignorant and the selfish will join hands under 
the black flag borne by the demon Rum. There is no 
doubt where in that day will stand the vast throng who 
this night crowd the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Nor 
will there be any doubt that in the impending conflict the 
righteous will inevitably prevail. The Temperance Re- 
form, as we interpret it, will not be a reform until Prohi- 
bition becomes a success. (Applause.) 

The prohibition of the liquor traffic is the most mo- 
mentous question now being debated among our people. 
As a political question it overshadows all others and must 
necessarily be a great factor in national politics. That Pro- 
hibition can be secured to non-partisan politics is a delusion. 
The Prohibition element in the Democratic party will not 
transfer to the Republican party. The Republican Pro- 
hibitionist will never gravitate toward the Democratic 
party, and both the Democratic and Republican Prohibi- 
tionist prefer the supremacy of party to the destruction of 
the saloon. 

The National Prohibition party is the center a ound 
which the prohibition element in all parties will rally. To 
our banner will come the very best men and women, 
North and South, and beneath its folds bury all bitterness 
of the unhappy past. In no other political organization 
can we have a complete restored union of flags, hands and 
hearts. (Great applause.) 

The Solid South will dissolve under the genial, melt- 
ing rays of the sun of Prohibition, and under its benign 
influence the stalwart Northern orator will forget the 
things which are behind. 

The colored voter in the strife of election day will be- 
gin to believe in his own manhood as the proscriptive and 



98 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

prescriptive methods give place to reason, kindly argument, 
and a divided vote on honest differences of opinion — and 
then will come nn honest ballot fairly counted, both in 
Mississippi and Michigan. (Applause.) 

Every interest of the Nation demands prohibition of 
the liquor traffic through a National Prohibition party. 
The rising, on-flowing public opinion against the saloon 
cannot find room for its passage in the old political chan- 
nels.* It is impeded, choked, literally dammed back; but 
the irresistible current will find its way over the old parties, 
under the old parties, washing away the useless, dislodging 
the flood-wood and destroying the vicious. 

Brightly breaks upon us the vision of the future of 
our land redeemed from the thralldom and curse of the 
saloon. 

" Upspi inging from the ruined old 

We see the new. 
****** 

'Twill be but the ruin of the bad, 
The wasting of the wrong and ill, 

Whate'er of good the old time had, 
Is living still I" 

(Great applause.) 

My friend Carroll went over into Jersey, where he and 
I both live, and where he and I are standing shoulder to 
shoulder trying to secure a local option bill in our legis- 
lature, working hand-in-hand. He tells us of what hap- 
pened up in Morris county, where a very good man was 
defeated by some legerdemain that I do not know anything 
about. Down in my own county, in the same canvass — 
in Monmouth county — it was this way: I drew so heavily 
on the Democratic vote in Monmouth county that we 
elected two Republicans to the legislature for the first 
time in a dozen years. (Great applause.) And the lead- 



GENERAL FISK'S SPEECH. 99 

ers of the Democratic party said : " Why, what does this 
mean? They are destroying our party!" 

We do not stop to ask which party we are destroying. 
We are not in the field to destroy the Republican party. 
My friend Carroll is mistaken. No man ever loved the 
old Republican party more than I do. I helped to create 
it, and marched with it all the way from Fremont to Gar- 
field. It held* the banner of protection over me. In the 
smoke and flame of battle the old Union flag was upheld 
by the Republican party. Can I forget that party, or 
what it was, its magnificent work? No, never! And 
many of us who left it went down on our knees to it, and 
begged it to take up this issue, and it dared not do it. And 
I will tell you that this battle will go on until the good men 
of all parties shall stand on one side of the line in a na- 
tional party for the destruction of the saloon ; and over 
against them will stand all the enemies of our Master and 
our Christian civilization, and we will all stand together. 
These gentlemen who have so eloquently argued from 
their position to-night, doing the very best they could with 
a hard case, no doubt (great laughter), why, they, with 
their great throbbing hearts for the world can find no rest 
for the soles of their feet except in the Prohibition party. 
(Great laughter and applause.) 

Now, I think, Mr. Chairman, that I will thank all you 
ladies and gentlemen for sitting so patiently through this 
discussion. It is a good augury. You want to know the 
truth, and knowing the truth, I believe you will follow it 
out. Those of us who stood on one side of this discus- 
sion have the very kindest feeling in the world toward 
those who stood on the other side. We will agree that 
they are doing their very utmost to do right as God has 
given them to see the right. 

I will simply thank you again in behalf of the Fro. 



IOO OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

hibitionists, in behalf of these Republican Prohibitionists, 
in behalf of the Anti- Saloon Republicans, in behalf of 
everybody who has come here to-night and been at all in- 
structed by this discussion which has been carried on in the 
very best of temper and heart — and so should all our dis- 
cussions be carried on in a good cause. (Great applause.) 



HIS PLEA FOR THE WOMEN. 



At the General Conference of the Methodist Church 
held at New York in May 1888, the General made one of 
his grandest speeches in favor of admitting the "Lady Lay 
Delegates." We give the closing remarks: 

"The women of our Methodism have a place in the heart of the 
Church from which they cannot be dislodged. They are our chiei 
working members. They are at the front of every great movement 
of the Church, at home or abroad. In the spirit of rejoicing conse- 
cration our matrons and maids uphold the banner of our Lord in 
every conflict with the enemy of virtue and righteousness. Look- 
ing down upon us from these galleries, tier upon tier, are the mag- 
nificent leaders of the Woman's Foreign and the Woman's Home 
Missionary Societies. Our women are at the front of the battles 
now waging against the liquor traffic in our fair land, and they 
will not cease their warfare until this nation shall be redeemed from 
the curse of the saloon. God bless all these women of our great 
conquering Church of the Redeemer. 

Twenty years ago Bishop Hurst accompanied me on a leisurely 
tour of continental Europe. In the old city of Nuremberg we wan- 
dered among the old churches and market-places, where may be 
seen the marvelous productions of that evangel of art, Albert Diirer. 
In an old schloss in that city may be found the diary of Albert 
Diirer, almost four centuries old. In it you may read as follows: 
" Master Gebhart, of Antwerp, has a daughter seventeen years old, 
and she has illuminated the head of a Saviour for which I gave a 
florin. It is a marvel that a woman could do so much." Three and 

% a half centuries later Rosa Bonheur hangs her masterpiece in the 
chief places of the galleries of the world, and Harriet Hosmer's 
studio contributes many of the best marbles that adorn the parlors 
of Europe and America, and no one wonders that a woman can do 

. so much. [Applause.] From that day when Martin Luther, the 
protesting monk, and Catharine Von Bora, the ex-nun stood together 
at the altar and the tw#in became one, woman has, by her own hero- 
ism, by her faith in her sex and in God who made her, fought a 
good fight against the organized selfishness of those who would 



102 ^ OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

withhold from her any right or privilege to which she is entitled, and 
has lifted herself from slavery and barbarism to a place by the side 
of man, where God placed her in Paradise, his equal in tact and 
talent, moving upon the world with her unseen influence, and mak- 
ing our Christian civilization what it is to-day. [Applause.] Let 
not our Methodism in this, her chief council, say or do aught that 
shall lead the world to conclude that we are retreating from our 
advanced position of justice to the laity of the Church. Let us 
rather strengthen our guarantee of loving protection of every right 
and privilege of every member of our Church, without distinction of 
race, color, or sex. Amen and Amen. [Applause.] 



THE PROHIBITION PARTY MOVE- 
MENT. 



We are indebted to Dr. Daniel Dorchester for the fol- 
lowing condensed sketch of the Prohibition Party taken 
from his valuable work, "The Liquor Problem in All 
Ages. 

During the session of the Right Worthy Grand Lodge of Good 
Templars, at Oswego, N. Y., May 25, 1869, a meeting favoring inde- 
penddit political action for the promotion of temperance was called) 
Jonathan Orne, of Marblehead, Mass., chairman, and Julius A. 
Spencer, of Ohio, secretary. After deliberation a committee of five, 
consisting of John Russell, of Detrrot, Mich.; Professor Daniel Wil- 
kins, of Bloomington, 111.; J. A. Spencer, of Cleveland, Ohio; John 
N. Stearns, of New York city, and James Black, of Lancaster, Pa., 
was appointed to prepare and issue a call for a National Prohibition 
C< nvention, to organize a National Prohibition party. The call was 
issued, and nearly five hundred delegates from twenty different States 
met in mass convention in Farwell Hall, Chicago, Sept. 1, 1S69. A 
stirring "address to the people of the United States," presented by 
Hon. Gerrit Smith, of New York, was read, adopted, and widely pub- 
lished. A Central Committee was elected, and the first national 
nominating convention assembled in Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 22, 1872. 
A declaration of principles was made, and Hon. James Black, of 
Pennsylvania, nominated as their candidate for the Presidency of 
the United States and Rev. John Russell, of Michigan, for Vice- 
President. 



The prohibition party movement. 103 

The second nominating convention assembled in Cleveland, 
Ohio, May 17, 1876, at which Hon. Green Clay Smith, of Kentucky, 
was chosen candidate for President, and Hon. G.T. Stewart, of Ohio, 
for Vice-President. 

The third convention met in Cleveland, Ohio, June 17, 1880, at 
which General Neal Dow, of Maine, was nominated for President, 
and Rev. H. A. Thompson, D.D., of Ohio, for Vice-President. 

In 18S4, the convention was held in Pittsburg, Pa., and Hon. J. 
P. St. John, of Kansas, was nominated for President, and William 
Daniels, of Maryland, for Vice-President. 

The platform adopted declared that both the great political par- 
ties virtually recommended the perpetuation of the liquor traffic, and 
that a separate party was a necessity for the effectual enactment and 
enforcement of prohibitory laws. It also declared for the abolition 
of the revenue from alcoholic liquors and tobacco; that revenue for 
customs duties should be levied for the support of the Government; 
that public lands be held for homes for the people; that the oppressed 
of all nations should receive the benefits which our institutions con- 
fer; that Congress should exercise its undoubted right to exclude the 
manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages from the District of 
Columbia and the Territories, and also declaring for the ballot in the 
hands of woman, but relegating its practical working to the discre- 
tion of the party in the several States. The party had an electoral 
ticket in thirty-four States. 

The action of the great political parties clearly indicates an ad- 
vance in temperance sentiment. The subject in some form is receiv- 
ing more distinct recognition in the party platforms of the State 
conventions. Within the period of about one year, 1886, twenty-two 
Republican State conventions declared the liquor question to be one 
of great political importance. The Republican conventions of ten 
States — Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nebraska, Missouri, 
West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, and Oregon — passed 
resolutions in favor of submitting prohibitory constitutional amend- 
ments. The Republican State Conventions of New Jersey, Connec- 
ticut, Wisconsin, and Indiana resolved in favor of local option, Min- 
neso a for high license, and Ohio for a tax law. The Republican 
State Conventions of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Iowa, and 
Kansas resolved in favor of a prohibitory law and its rigid enforce- 
ment. The Democratic State Conventions in most of the States 
passed resolutions against sumptuary laws, but the Iowa Democratic 
Convention declared itself for high license; that of Tennessee for 



I04 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

the submission of a prohibitory constitutional amendment, and that 
of Texas left each member of the party free to do as he should 
choose. 



THE FIELD OF CONFLICT. 



Armies are reviewed before battle, arms and accoutrements in- 
spected, and strength for the conflict determined. 

Ali nations have indulged in intoxicants of some kind. Opium 
and tobacco are more extensively used than any other drugs. 
10,000,000 people use cocoa as an intoxicant. 
100,000,000 people use betel-nut. 
250,000,000 people use hemp or hasheesh. 
500,000,000 people use opium. 
50 ,000,000 people use alcoholic stimulants of some 

kind. 
800,000,000 people use tobacco in its various forms. 
Many persons use several of these stimulants. Confucius 
(478 B. C.) warned his disciples against drunkenness. Drunkenness 
is mentioned in the books of India 1,000 years before Christ The 
Persians were great wine drinkers, Cyrus and others. Ale, beer and 
wine are said to have been invented by Bacchus; the first in Egypt, 
where the soil was considered unable to produce grapes. Ale was 
known as a beverage at least 409 B. C. Herodotus ascribes the first 
discovery of the art of brewing barley-wine to Isis, the wife of Osiris. 
Jews, Greeks and Romans were all addicted to drink, and from the 
days of Noah to the present the peoples of all lands have suffered 
under the curse and shame of drunkenness. Is it any wonder that 
God has said, " Cursed is the ground for thy sake. * * Thorns 
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee"? — Dorchester. 



THE DRINK WASTE. 



The Drink Waste presents appa ling facts and figures. The Cen- 
sus Bureau, from careful calculations, estimates that there are about 
15,000,000 drinking people in the United States. 
From various sources we gather the following: 

500,000 persons incarcerated annually. 

400,000 criminals of all grades, from thieves to murderers. 



THE DRINK WASTE. 105 

300,000 thieves t lings, rioters, burglars, and anarchists. 

205,000 makers, -wholesale and retail dealers in spirits and 

malt liquors. 
100,000 drunkards die annually, leaving large families for 

friends, relatives and the state to support. 
60,000 paupers are provided at state expense, besides 
myriads of private benefactions. 
$50,000,000 a year are spent on the account of pauperism and 

crime. 
$40,000,000 of whoAle grains (70,000,000 bushels) are de- 
stroyed annually. 
70 per cent, of .the demented and insane result from 

strong drink. 
80 per cent, of railroad, steamboat and other disasters 

from the same source. 
80 per cent, of all crimes come from drink. 
90 per cent, of all defalcations come from drink. 
90 per cent, of divorces caused by strong drink. 
95 per cent, of children in the reform-schools are 

from parents who have died from strong drink. 
95 per cent, of incarcerations result from drinking. 
15 years are taken from the average life of man by 
drink. 



APPALLING STATISTICS. 



(Collated from the U. S. Census Bureau, ivith estimates per gallon?) 

Alcoholic Liquors, 72,261 ,614 gallons, retailed 

at $4.50 per gal., $325,177,263 

Domestic and Imported Wines, 22,067,220 gal- 
lons, at $5 50 per gal., 121,369,710 

Beer, 642,967, 720 gallons, at 70 cents per gal., 450,077,404 

Allow for fraudulent reduction (low estimate), 3,375,623 



Grand total, .... $900,000,000 



WAR AND RUM. 



In the territory now known as the UNITED STATES there 
have been KILLED during one hundred and fifty years, IN WAR, 
600,000 persons. Yearly average, 4,000. RUM kills (at half the 



106 OUR STANDARD BEARER. 

estimate) 50,000 yearly, or during the past 150 years, 7,500,000. The 
great -wars of the world for twenty-five years, from 1852 to 1877 
including the Franco-German war and our own civil war, cost a 
fraction over $12,000,000,000. The cost for intoxicants for the same 
period in the United States was more than $15,000,000,000, or 
$3,000,000,000 more than all the wars of the world. For every thou- 
sand killed in battle rum kills twelve and a half thousand. Thr 
sword has slain its thousands but rum its tens of thousands. 



AN INDICTMENT OF RUM. 



1. In all the catalogue of vices, there are none whose destruc 
tive effects in a moral sense, exceed those of drunkenness. 

2. Drunkenness defiles the conscience and hardens the heart. 

3. It is a destroyer of property and credit. 

4. It brings disorder, distress and wretchedness into families. 

5. It is an enemy to decency and modesty. 

6. It leads to profanity, blasphemy, quarrels, fightings and 
murders. 

7. It is the father of evil, the mother of mischief, and the nurse 
of riot. 

8. It weakens the memory and destroys the judgment. 

9. It robs a man of his dignity and undermines his health. 
It dignifies crime with a legal sanction. 

It authorizes the sale of a poison that debauches the people. 

It justifies nearly all the evils that now curse the world. 

It robs the people by delusive appeals to their passions and appe- 
tites. 

It offers a monopoly to the rich to lure the poor to their ruin. 

It paralyzes conscience and benumbs the moral sense. 

It sanctions a consuming curse that cheats and then robs the 
people of all that is either good, true, or beautiful. 

It justifies crime with the delusive garb of respectability. 

It justifies wholesale murder by direct complicity and sanction 
of law. 

It deludes the people and falsifies the criminal by a pretense of 
restraint. 

It deludes the people with a diabolical pretense of virtue. 

It undermines and destroys all respect for law by justifying and 
protecting both the crime and the criminal. 

It makes the law the pretext and vehicle for violence. 



AN INDICTMENT OP RUM. IO7 

It deludes the people with a pretense of compensation for the 
damage the traffic inflicts. 

It makes the government and people responsible for all the 
crime, misery, and death the traffic produces. 

It blasts and blights the influence of the Christian Church, and 
demoralizes the whole community with crime and debauchery. 

It leads men from God and all good, hastens on an untimely 
death, and at last destroys the soul. 

Shall we, the free and enlightened, Christian, law-abiding peo- 
ple of America, apologize for, cover up, and justify the horrible, 
death dealing, home-destroying, crime-producing, pauperizing liquor 
traffic by a legal sanction? We say no! A thousand times no! 
Never!! Never!!! Never!!!! 



THE AGGREGATE WEALTH OF 
THE UNITED STATES. 



The Census Bureau in 1880 gave the following: 
wealth of the United States: 

Farm, $10,197,000,000 

Residence and bur-iness real estate, . . 9,881,000,000 

All real estate exempt from tax, . . . 2,000,000,000 

Railroads and equipments, . . . 5,536,000,000 

Telegraphs, shipping and canals, . . . 419,000,000 

Live stock, farm tools and machinery, . 3,056,000,000 
Household furniture, clothing, paintings, books, 

jewelry, household supplies of food, fuel, etc., 5,000,000,000 

Mines, etc., with one-half the annual product, . 781,000,000 
Three-fourths the annual product of agriculture and 

manufactures and imports of foreign goods, 6,160,000,000 

Specie, ....... 612,000,000 



Total, .... $43,642,000,000 

The estimate in 1888 is $50,000,000,000. 

To destroy this capital and waste the increase, is the constant 
work of the rum power. It is an enemy to civil government, thwarts 
education, chokes the channels of trade, opposes the spread of Chris- 
tianity, is a blight and a curse over all the land. 



io8 



OUR STANDARD BEARER. 



PROGRESS OF THE PROHIBITION PARTY MOVEMENT 
IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. 



STATES. 


Presi- 
dent, 
1872. 


Pres - 
dent, 

1876 


Pr Sim 

de >t. 
1880- 


Presi- 
dent, 
1884. 


1886. 


Alahama 








613 


766 


Arkansas 
















61 


2,960 

761 

2,305 

64 

72 

168 

12,074 

3,028 

1,472 

4,495 

3,139 

328 

2,160 

2,827 

9,923 

18,403 

4.684 

2,153 

2,899 


6 432 


Colorado 






3,597* 


Connecticut 


205 


378 


409 


4,699 




7,835 
243* 
























141 

38 

36 

110 

818 


443 


19,766 






9,185 






592 


518 






8.094 






258 
















93 


3,873 


Maryland 




10 

84 

767 

144 


7,195 






682 
942 
286 


8,251 


Michigan 


l,z71 


25,179 




8,966 












64 
1,599 




3,504 








8,175 












200 




ISO 

191 

1.517 


1,570 

6,153 

24,999 

454 

11,069 

492 

15,283 

928 


2,137 


43 
2,329 


19,808 




201 


36,437 




4,107§ 
28,9S2 


Ohio 


2,100 


1,636 


2 616 

1,319 

20 




2,753* 




1,630 


1,319 
6S 


32,458 




2,585 
















1,131 
3,534 
1.752 

138 

939 

7,656 












19,186 










1,541 


















1,492 






153 


69 


17,089 










5,6»7 


9,737 


9,678 


150, (V. 6 


294 863 



* Aggregates on Congressmen. 
§Aggregates on members of Legislature. 



SEE NOW 

When a man goes out tiger shooting he does not load his gun 
with bird-shot— does he? Somebody here (a high-license preacher!) 
says " The Prohibitionists have been firing for years at the saloon 
tiger and have not hit it once." Is that so? It looks to us as though 
the aforesaid striped animal had been driven from one po ition to 
another, and that now he is in the last lair of all the high license 
holes! Don't shoot bird-shot at that position! 



T 



RY 

fl* Tr OR THE ANTI-HIGH- 

IMELY 

L ALKS, LICENSE BULLETS. 

We have printed millions of them — the enemy has counterfeited 
the name — they are lively, convincing, short, pointed, tin answer able. 
They are also cheap. For five cents we send samples of all (3 2 )- 
For $2.50 we send 1000. 

Signal Hiiglrts 

Are still cheaper. They are little but lively. Samples of 
all, 3 cents; 1000, $1.30. . 

Then you ought to show the children how to " p'int their guns." 
For this, nothing excels Miss Gordon's 

Prohibition Program, and Marching Soup, 

Price, each, 10 cents. They are capital and have been wonderfully 
successful. Good music will be a factor in the fight. Try 

Ttie Glorious Cauise, 

BY DR. GEO. F. ROOT. 

Price, postpaid, 35 cents; 100 copies by express, $27.00. 

Stirring old War Songs set to words for the new Crusade — plead- 
ing Gospel Songs, all good and all new. With all your sending, 
be sure to include a request for our latest Bulletin (no joke on Bullet- 
in-tended). 
Address, 

The Woman's Temperance Pub Ass'n., 

161 La Salle St., Chicago, 



THE YOUNG CRUSADER. 



WANTED! 

ONE THOUSAND BOYS AND GIRLS! 
RIGHT OFF! WHAT FOR? 

To Enlist in the New Crusade ! 

AGAINST WHAT? 

Against the Worst Enemy There is in the World! 

Would you like to know about the war that is now going on? 

About the two great armies? About the weapons? 

About the victories? 

•tieie^t sze^ntid poe the 

Young Crusader. Only 50 Cents a year. 

How Often Does it Come? Weekly ! 

Then there is the special Sunday-School edition, published monthly, 
at 15 cents a year, or 80 cents per month for 100 copies. 

You Ought to Have That in Your Sunday-School. 

Its lesson pictures, concert exercises, stories, poems, etc., are too 
good to be described. Don't you want to see them? 

FOR PROGRAMS AND SPECIAL EXERCISES FOR 

DECORATION DAY, FOURTH OF JULY, 

CHRISTMAS, ETC.. 

there's nothing better than 

The: Young Crusader 

A sample copy of both editions sent fr< e to whoever asks 

lor them. Also the first part of a charming 

story, "Van and Vet." 

Address, 

The Woman's Temperance Publication Association, 

161 La Salle Street, Chicago. * 



THOUGHTFUL 

MEN and WOMEN 

See that history is repeating itself: that the inexorable voice 
of Public Sentiment is gathering force to say, 

THE SALOON MUST GO. 

The Crusade" of 1873 was the still small voice which then said to 
the Saloon, "Please go." Now it says, 

"YOU MUST G O." 

The printed page result of the Crusade is 

The Union Signal, 

Published Weekly at 
161 LA SALLE STREET, - CHICAGO. 

We want you to try it 

FIVE WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS! 

It is not like a hornet or a whip lash in giving its opinions, 
but "good natured as sunshine, steadfast as grav- 
itation and persistent as a Christian's faith " 

TRY IT FIVE WEEKS— 

10 CENTS IS A TRIFLE. 

IT IS A SPLENDID PAPER FOR THE HOME CIRCLE. 

Address as above, or, better still, our local representative, 



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